A trustee's delay in bringing a Beddoe application is not a disqualifying circumstance, though it increases the trustee's personal exposure for costs. Where a life tenancy is granted and the will expressly provides that the life tenant is responsible for outgoings, a proviso relieving the life tenant of that obligation during a subsequent occupant's 'period of residence' operates only during that subsequent period, not during the life tenant's own occupation. Where a will grants a life interest in vacant land and makes no provision for outgoings (in contrast to express provision for another property), the presumption that the life tenant pays outgoings is overridden and the estate bears the cost.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 6 later cases that cite this judgment.