12.—(1) Where—

(a) in the opinion of a housing authority or the Housing Finance Agency plc, a house in respect of which a relevant loan has been made by the authority or the Agency, as the case may be, is abandoned by the borrower and any other person who might reasonably be expected to reside with the borrower, and the house has been or is in danger of being damaged or trespassed upon or of having any of its fixtures or fittings damaged or removed, and

(b) the house is not occupied by any person with the lawful consent of the borrower,

then, the authority or the Agency, as the case may be, may, without prejudice to due process of law for recovering possession of the house or any proceedings for the recovery of possession of the house, make whatever arrangements are considered necessary to secure and protect the house and for those purposes a person authorised by the authority or the Agency may enter the house at any time and may do therein anything reasonably necessary to secure and protect the house.

(2) Where the address at which the borrower resides for the time being is known to the housing authority or the Housing Finance Agency plc, as the case may be, the borrower shall be notified by them of the arrangements being made to secure and protect the house under subsection (1).

(3) The expenses incurred by a housing authority or the Housing Finance Agency plc under this section may be recovered by the authority or the Agency, as the case may be—

(a) from the borrower as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction, or

(b) by an addition to the capital debt outstanding on the relevant loan.

(4) In this section—

“borrower” means the person to whom a relevant loan has been made and includes a successor in title of that person and the personal representative of that person or successor in title;

“relevant loan” means—

(a) a housing loan made by virtue of section 11, or

(b) a loan made by a housing authority under section 39 of the Principal Act or section 8 of the Act of 1979, or

(c) a loan made by the Housing Finance Agency plc in respect of a house.