Section 17

A trustee of any leaseholds for lives or years which are renewable from time to time either under any covenant or contract, or by custom or usual practice, may, if the trustee thinks fit, and must, if required by any person having any beneficial interest, present or future, or contingent, in the leaseholds, use the trustee’s best endeavours to obtain from time to time a renewed lease of the same hereditaments on the accustomed and reasonable terms, and for that purpose may, from time to time, make or concur in making a surrender of the lease for the time being subsisting, and do all other requisite acts.

Where by the terms of the settlement or will the person in possession for his or her life or other limited interest is entitled to enjoy the same without any obligation to renew or to contribute to the expense of renewal, this section does not apply unless the written consent of that person is obtained to the renewal on the part of the trustee.

If money is required to pay for the renewal, the trustee effecting the renewal may pay the same out of any money then in the trustee’s hands in trust for the persons beneficially interested in the lands to be comprised in the renewed lease, and if the trustee has not in the trustee’s hands sufficient money for the purpose the trustee may raise the money required by mortgage of the hereditaments to be comprised in the renewed lease or of any other hereditaments for the time being subject to the uses or trusts to which those hereditaments are subject.

No person advancing money upon a mortgage purporting to be under subsection (3), is bound to see that the money is wanted, or that no more is raised than is wanted for the purpose, or otherwise as to the application of the money.