(h)"maintain", with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, does not, when used in relation to a house or other construction, include the doing of any act necessary for keeping such house or construction, until the making of the award referred to in section 12 or until the exercise, prior to the making of the award, of the powers of demolition conferred, in case of emergency, by section 6, subsections (1) and (3), in the state in which it was at the time of the publication of the notice referred to in section 3, sub-section (2);
