Roof repairs needed & poor finances
First time posting anything on here. I've lurked for years without ever having much to say, but a mate kept telling me I should stick this up and see what people reckon, so here goes. Bit of a long one, sorry.
The house was my dad's. He was here a long time and towards the end he was elderly and things quietly got away from him, the way they do. Nothing dramatic, just years of small jobs not getting done. I inherited it when he passed so I own it outright with no mortgage, and I've spent the time since working through the place myself. Most of it's at a decent standard now. The roof is the one thing I can't touch.
Earlier this year I had a leak at the chimney stack. Insurance covered that one and it's been sorted properly. But the roofer had a proper look at the rest while he was up there and told me the roof generally is in a bad way. Loose and slipped tiles, water's clearly been getting in at various points for years without anyone noticing, and he reckons there's probably rot in the timbers. Not what I wanted to hear. With autumn coming I'd rather sort it now than find out the hard way in November.
Insurance won't touch it. I asked and got told it's gradual deterioration and lack of maintenance, which given the history I can't really argue with. Council have come back too and said they've got nothing available to me at the minute.
Money wise, I work full time on just over 28k. No benefits, don't qualify for any of it. No savings whatsoever. I've got a few debts I'm paying off on agreed plans, all under control, but it means there's not much spare at the end of the month. Credit score's poor so a loan or a card isn't realistically happening either.
So I'm in that gap that seems to catch a lot of people. Earning too much for anything means tested, not enough left over to actually pay for the work, and no credit to bridge it.
What I'm really after is just, what do people do? I'm not fussed whether the answer is a grant, a charity, a lender or something I've never heard of. If you've been in this position yourself I'd like to know what actually worked rather than what's supposed to exist.
Things I've wondered about: whether any of the charitable or benevolent funds ever pay out to someone in full time work rather than on benefits, whether credit unions lending on affordability instead of credit file is realistic for a few thousand, whether roofers ever do staged payments or finance, and whether it's daft to have the worst areas made watertight now and the full job done later or whether that's just paying for scaffolding twice.
I'm getting quotes so I'll know the real number soon rather than guessing at it. Any steer appreciated, even if it's just telling me I'm out of luck.