What the recorded documents actually say about Canterbury Woods in South Bend — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
3 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
These answers come from four documents, and it is worth knowing which is which, because they do not all carry the same weight.
The main one is the recorded Declaration of Protective Covenants and Restrictions Applicable to the Recorded Plat of Canterbury Woods, filed in St. Joseph County on January 8, 1996 as Document No. 9600565. A First Amendment followed on January 31, 1996, Document No. 9603676, and it matters for scope rather than for rules: it states that the restrictions do not apply to Lots One, Two and Three of the recorded plat. If the home you are looking at is one of those three lots, most of what is on this page does not govern it.
Lot Two was afterward replatted as Canterbury Woods Section Two, which has its own recorded declaration, filed January 22, 2001 as Document No. 0103027 and amended September 30, 2004. Those restrictions are close to identical to the 1996 set, and the differences are small: a two story limit instead of two and a half, a minimum finished habitable area of eighteen hundred square feet instead of sixteen hundred for a bi-level, tri-level or two-story house, an added exception allowing horses on tracts of five acres or more, and no paragraph about seawalls or boat shelters. The 2004 amendment records that the owners of Lots 21, 22, 23, 24 and 26 are members of the association and the owner of Lot 25 is not. Ask which section and which lot number the home sits on before relying on any single answer here.
The fourth document is not a recorded instrument. It is the association's own four page Summary of Protective Covenants and Restrictions and Association Services dated August 1, 2018, with an addendum dated August 21, 2018 and a further addendum dated October 2020. It describes itself as excerpts from the recorded declaration, and in several places it is wider than the declaration it summarises. The association document bans ancillary buildings, bans swimming pools of any kind, bans renting, subletting and loaning of homes, and allows satellite dishes up to twenty-four inches, while the recorded declaration says nothing about ancillary buildings or leasing, bans only above-ground pools, and allows dishes under nineteen inches. Where the two differ, this page gives both and says which document each rule comes from. An association rule and a recorded covenant are not the same thing, and nothing in the file shows that these addenda were ever recorded.
All four are scans of paper with no digital text, so they were read by optical character recognition and individual words can be misread. Pages were checked against the scanned images wherever a number or a date drove an answer.
Before you rely on any of this for a specific house, order a current title commitment and have the title company or the Recorder search for anything filed after 2004, in particular any recorded amendment covering leasing, pools or outbuildings. Ask the association in writing for its current rules and regulations, the current assessment, and whether the board has adopted anything since October 2020.
Fences are limited rather than banned, and the limit is about sight lines and how close to the street a fence may sit. The recorded declaration says no screen planting or fence over thirty-six inches high may be placed closer than twenty-five feet to the street right-of-way, and on a corner lot nothing between two and six feet above street level may obstruct the sight triangle formed by the street property lines and a line joining them twenty-five feet from the corner. The same sight limit applies within ten feet of where a driveway meets the street. Walls installed by the developer are excepted. The association's October 2020 addendum restates that rule and then adds two exceptions: fencing on the property line between association property and non-association property, and privacy fencing against the home or garage that allows for waste can storage. Both exceptions require the Board of Directors to review and approve the proposed fencing first, so plan on submitting it before you build.
The association's own summary of the covenants is flat on this: ancillary buildings may not be erected, installed or permitted on any lot or ease way in the subdivision. That wording reaches a storage shed. It is worth knowing where the rule comes from, because the two recorded declarations on file do not contain it. What they say is narrower, that no structure of a temporary character, trailer, basement, tent, shack, garage, barn or other outbuilding may be used on a lot as a residence, temporarily or permanently. If you are planning a shed, ask the association for the current written rule and whether anything has been recorded since.
This is a flat ban on the lot, not a placement rule. The recorded declaration says no house trailers, motor homes, large trucks or boats or other offensive objects may be parked or located, temporarily or permanently, on any lot in the subdivision at any time. There is no loading window, no screening option and no permitted alternative named anywhere in the document, and it never mentions a garage in either direction. The association's 2018 summary repeats the same sentence. A separate paragraph of the recorded declaration also says no seawall or boat shelter may be erected on any lot. If your situation turns on a camper kept entirely inside a closed garage, the documents do not answer that, so get the association's answer in writing before you buy.
The two documents do not agree on how far this reaches, so here is both. The recorded declaration bans above-ground swimming pools on any lot and says nothing about an in-ground pool. The association's 2018 summary goes further and says swimming pools of any kind are not allowed on any lot. That summary is the association's own restatement rather than a recorded amendment, so if an in-ground pool is the reason you are looking at the house, get the association's answer in writing and have the Recorder checked for anything filed after 1996.
Written approval is required before building or altering. The recorded declaration says no building may be erected, placed or altered on a lot until the construction plans, the specifications and a plan showing where the structure will sit have been approved in writing for conformity and harmony of exterior design with the existing houses in the plat. It gives the reviewer seven days: if the committee does not approve or disapprove within seven days of submission, and no suit to stop the work has been started before it is finished, approval is treated as given. The declaration put that power in an architectural control committee named by the developer and ended that committee's authority on October 1, 2005 for the original plat, and on January 1, 2011 for Section Two, unless owners of seventy-five percent of the lots recorded an instrument appointing a successor. The association's 2018 summary says alterations are approved in writing by the Board of Directors, so in practice that is who to ask.
A small dish is carved out of an otherwise complete ban, but the two documents give different sizes. The recorded declaration bans any exposed exterior radio or television transmitting or receiving device on a lot, house or building, excluding satellite dishes under nineteen inches in diameter. The Section Two declaration uses the same nineteen inch figure. The association's 2018 summary says the exception is for satellite dishes under twenty-four inches. Either way a conventional antenna or tower is out and a small dish is the carve-out, but confirm which measurement the association enforces before you order an install.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Lawn care is the homeowner's job and there is a standard attached to it. The association's 2018 addendum says all exterior maintenance and improvements to the home are the sole responsibility of each homeowner, and that owners are responsible for maintaining their sprinkling system and watering their lawns when necessary to keep a healthy appearance. On top of that the recorded declaration limits planting in two places: nothing may be planted in a utility or drainage easement that would damage or interfere with utilities, change the direction of drainage flow, or obstruct or retard water moving through a drainage channel, and the owner maintains the easement area of the lot except for improvements a utility or public authority is responsible for. Trees may not remain inside the corner sight triangle unless the foliage line is kept high enough to keep the view clear. The association itself maintains the landscaping and entry areas.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Household pets are allowed, farm animals are not, and dogs have a leash rule. The recorded declaration says no animals, livestock or poultry of any kind may be raised, bred or kept on a lot, excepting dogs, cats or other household pets, provided they are not raised, bred or kept for any commercial purpose. No number limit and no size or breed limit appears anywhere in it. The Section Two declaration carries the same paragraph and adds an exception for horses on tracts of five acres or more, which is unlikely to matter at the lot sizes here. The association's 2018 addendum adds that all dogs must be leashed at all times when outside.
Leasing is barred, and a buyer should know exactly which document does it. The ban is in the association's addendum, first issued August 21, 2018 and broadened in October 2020, which says there will be no renting or subletting or loaning of homes in the subdivision. It adds that homes may only be purchased by single families, that in the owner's absence only designated family members may live there with or without payment, that individuals paid by the owner such as house sitters are allowed, and that no entity, organization, business or other group may purchase a home. The two recorded declarations contain no leasing restriction at all, and the 1996 declaration appears to contemplate renting, since its sign paragraph permits one sign advertising the property for sale or rent. So on this file the ban is an association rule rather than a recorded covenant. If rental use matters to you, ask the association for the current written rule and have the title company search the Recorder for any amendment filed after these documents.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →One sign, and only for the reasons named. The recorded declaration says no sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot except one sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent, plus signs a builder uses to advertise during the construction and sales period. The association's 2018 summary restates it with two changes: it names only a sign advertising the property for sale, and it allows a contractor sign during a remodeling period, to be removed when the job is finished. Neither document mentions political, security or other yard signs, which on this wording fall under the general ban rather than under the exception.
Everyday cars are fine; where they sit is governed. The association's 2018 addendum says there is to be no long term parking of vehicles in the cul-de-sac, because emergency vehicles and snow plows cannot complete the turn, and that cars parked on the street are allowed for visitors and short term only. It does not define long term or short term, so that is a question for the board. Separately, the recorded declaration bans house trailers, motor homes, large trucks and boats from the lots entirely, and the house itself is allowed a private garage for not more than four cars.
The use restriction is flat: no lot in the subdivision may be used other than for residential purposes, and the association's 2018 summary repeats it. A separate paragraph bans any noxious or offensive activity that may become an annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood, and the pet paragraph bars keeping animals for a commercial purpose. What the documents never do is use the words home business, home occupation or office, or set up any approval route for one, so they do not tell you where a quiet work-from-home arrangement with no clients, no employees and no signage would land. If you need a definite answer for a specific business, put the question to the association in writing, and check South Bend's zoning as well, since the covenants are not the only rule that applies.
Short stays are covered by the same association addendum that bars leasing. Its October 2020 wording bans renting, subletting or loaning of homes, with no minimum term and no exception for a few nights, and it limits who may live in the house when the owner is away to designated family members, with or without payment. Individuals paid by the owner, such as house sitters, are allowed. Nothing in the two recorded declarations addresses short term rental at all, so as this file stands the rule comes from the association rather than from a recorded covenant. Confirm the current rule with the association before counting on any rental income.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Bins have to be out of sight except on pickup day. The association's addendum, as amended in October 2020, requires homeowners to store trash, recycling and yard waste bins in their garage, hidden in the back yard, or behind permanent privacy fences against the home or garage that the Board of Directors has approved, when the bins are not in the driveway for pickup. The recorded declaration adds that no lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish, that trash, garbage or other waste may not be deposited on a lot except in sanitary containers, and that any incinerator or other storage or disposal equipment must be kept in a clean and sanitary condition.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Tell us the question and we will get you the answer from the recorded documents.