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Say there is a widow with three children at home. Her house has several structural problems, including a leaking roof, which leaks in the living room, her bedroom, and her daughter's bedroom, necessitating at least five buckets. The renovation services of a licensed contractor would cost at least $5,000, yet she only has a budget of $1,000. She is a small business owner, but due to the economic crisis, the store hasn't been very busy and the chances of her raising $4,000 are bleak. There are unlicensed contractors who would work within her budget. However, hiring an unlicensed contractor to do house repairs is an offense within her state. Should she:
1. Obey the law, and continue to have a leaking roof and other problems
2. Hire the unlicensed contractor to fix it
3. Other?
By all means do NOT hire an unlicensed contractor. Not only is it against code, which she could get heavy fines from, the work likely will be shotty and if something goes wrong there is nothing that can be done leading to even more cost.
In the mean time i'd see what she can do about getting a second job, or possibly looking for better employment. Are the children of working age? If so having them get employment to help out would be great as well.
2nd sell off all,if any assets she may have. If that still isn't cutting it, selling the home and finding something less expensive (possibly an apartment) would be the thing to do.
A leaking roof is a serious issue and 4K to fix it sounds conservative in my book. It sounds like there has been years and year of neglect. The shingles likely are shot, the wood underneath as well. All the insulation soaked likely causing mold and other health issues. You mention it's coming through the ceiling in numerous places so the ceilings are likely shot as well.. If there are even more problems like you mention and she can't afford it, it may be best to move on before severe roof problems happen. Even possibly leading to complete collapse.
Move. If she owns her own shop, she can't feasibly get another, or second job. If the kids are of working age, great- as long as their employment is workable due to time/transportation, etc.
Are there any restrictions about the homeowner/family doing repairs? If so, yep- it's time to move.
Insurance??? if the roof is leaking THIS bad... then the roof has been neglected for SEVERAL years and when the problem first started - it should have been dealt with then.
the person HAS to get the roof fixed... leaking water... equals MOLD!!
Call a licensed roofing company -- in fact call 3 -- and get a free estimate. Then you will have at least an understanding of what repairs are needed and what the real costs are. Do you have any family members that can do some of the work? I think its legal for you to do the work yourself, just not to hire unlicensed contractors. It doesn't take special skill to pull out old insulation, for example, and put in new insulation...... Shop around. Times are tough for everyone.....I'm finding licensed contractors for my business at very reasonable rates these days.
Driller is on the right track. Most all local cities/towns/municipalities have what's called "Community Development Block Grant Program". Go to city hall and inquire about this program. Most always you must be income qualified which is not hard. It's not a program for the unemployed or bums. It's for working class America who wishes to make improvements to their home. This program is NOT for improvements such as a new pool or an addition. It's meant to bring your current home to modern codes and safety issues up to date.
These loans are very low cost if you sell the home in 5-7 years and these loans are forgiven if you live in the home more then 5-7 years.
If your local area does not have this then they can steer you to State and Federal programs. One such being the 203K loan or it's sister programs.
Finally there are are local organizations who donate their time. I did "Paint Your Heart Out" for years on the east coast. That organization started out as just painting and has grown to ever part of the home improvement game. This is mainly for older people. It's a great program which costs the homeowner nothing.
I find that some states and municipalities find ANYTHING offensive if the special interest group involved in passing legislation gets offended. In Birmingham, you CANNOT legally work on your own plumbing. You can work on wiring in your home, but the plumbers have a lock on anything with a pipe. I find THAT offensive.
Around here, a church group would take on a task like the one described, with the blessings of the local governments.
My questions are: does she own the house outright or is she paying a mortgage? Has she called around asking for prices on a "patch" job. Roofers HATE patching because they can miss the real leak and damage the membrane in the process, but sometimes patches are the way to go. In commercial real estate, flat roofs are almost always patched for three years or more before being re-roofed.
Zoning and other issues aside, if she could localize the sources of the leaks, a can of tar could reduce the leakage to tolerable level on a short term basis. I can't advise using unlicensed handymen, but sometime ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Ultimately though, it seems obvious the roof needs to be replaced or the house abandoned. All this does is postpone the inevitable.
She either needs to find a contractor that alows payment plan or seek help form governamnt grants or laon progrma. The first stop should be hopusing dept i her city or county. If she has five leaks it is like that the entrie roof is basically wornout and has needed replacing for some years. Its just crazy that a group such as a church organization can 't make repisrs in a code law because they don't actually charge which uis usually the baes for contractor requirements. just hope the area does have a disaster because such help is really need then.
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