Neighbors Refusing To Let Us Use Their Property So We Can Get Our Roof Fixed

Hello all!
Location: Northern Maine.

Recently, we discovered that a whole side of our moulding on our roof is rotting. I don’t know what it’s called exactly but it’s the piece between the actual roof and the house. Squirrels are now living in my ceiling, and probably destroying more by the day.

We live extremely close to our neighbors. We only have about 3 feet of property on that side of the house. The roofers have just told us that they are going to need to use the neighbor’s entire driveway for the lift and to get the equipment that they need to fix the problem. It’s going to be a one day project.

We’ve always had a good relationship with those neighbors. I’ve given them baked goods, always said hello and smiled. My husband has been invited inside their home when we moved in a year ago and one of them has come over for fires various times (it’s a man, his girlfriend and his best friend living there)

Well, my husband reached out to them and explain the situation and they are being absolutely nasty for no reason. They said under no circumstances are the roofers allowed to use their driveway or they will be towed. We have offered to let them use our driveway for the day (it’s so close and they don’t have any problems walking or anything) we have offered to pay them (we don’t have a ton of money so we aren’t gonna offer them hundreds of dollars but we did just say we’d pay) etc. They won’t budge for any reason. They are “not interested”. I just don’t understand, it’s a small inconvenience for one day, and I would never do this to someone.

I’m really struggling because I’m trying to be graceful and kind as to not cause any further issues but I called a few lawyers offices and consultations are $300 for an hour. We are already struggling with money and we’re going to have to pay about $7000 to fix our roof. It’s so stressful. Every day the squirrels destroy more and more of our interior home in the ceiling and I just know if it goes on for long enough we’re going to have to pay a ton of money to repair whatever areas they damaged. I don’t want to go through a lengthy legal battle on top of it and pay thousands of dollars to lawyers just so I can do some work on my house.

I just can’t believe that the town doesn’t have any protection over this sort of thing. I don’t understand how they gotta allow houses to be built so close together running the risk that something like this were to happen.

Any advice is appreciated.