What the recorded documents actually say about Dunhill Crossing in Elkhart — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
8 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 one recorded instrument: the Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements for Dunhill Crossing, filed with the Elkhart County Recorder on July 10, 2000.
Check your lot number before relying on any answer below. That instrument states that it applies to lots 1 through 10 and lots 68 through 86 of Dunhill Crossing Section 1 - twenty-nine lots in all. It does not state rules for lots 11 through 67, and no declaration for any other Section or Addition of Dunhill Crossing is among the recorded documents collected for this neighborhood. If the home you are looking at is not inside one of those two lot ranges, ask your title company or the Elkhart County Recorder for that lot's own recorded restrictions, because what is on this page may not be what governs it. Worth noting alongside that: the dues paragraph levies assessments equally on every lot in all Additions to and Sections of the Dunhill Crossing plat, so the association can reach lots whose use restrictions are not written in this document.
No amendment is on file here. The instrument let the developer amend it for five years after recording, and after that by the recorded vote of owners of at least seventy-five percent of the lots, so a later recorded amendment could exist that is not in this collection. A title search is the way to rule that out.
We checked that the whole document was actually read, because a partial copy is an easy way for a page like this to go quietly wrong. The recorded copy held on file carries 28,037 characters of text; the copy these answers were read from carries 27,266 of them, and everything before the end matches character for character. The only text absent is the closing block at the very end - the notary's acknowledgment, seal and the line naming who prepared the document, about 250 characters. All thirty-one numbered restrictions are present and were read, so no rule about what you may do with a lot went missing.
About the copy itself: it is a scan of paper, and the digital text inside it came from older optical character recognition, so individual words and a few short passages are damaged and some lines sit out of order. Every answer here carries a quote from that text so you can judge it, and where the damage touched an answer, that answer says so. Where wording mattered and could not be read, the question is left open rather than guessed at.
Fences need written approval from the architectural control committee, and the document sets a placement limit plus two height limits. No fence may stand nearer any street than the rear of the building. Perimeter fencing may not exceed five feet. A privacy fence around an immediate patio may go to six feet. A fence must also conform to the architectural standards set by the style of the home built on the lot, unless the committee grants a variance. A separate paragraph adds a corner-lot rule: no fence, wall, hedge or shrub that obstructs sight lines between two and six feet above the roadway may remain inside the triangle formed by the two street property lines and a line joining them twenty-five feet back from the intersection, and the same sight-line limit applies within ten feet of where a driveway meets a street property line.
Detached storage buildings and pet shelters are contemplated, and they are allowed subject to approval. The document describes them as detached storage or pet shelter structures used to store lawn tools, toys, swimming pool apparatus or other personal property, or to shelter pets. They must be of quality construction, kept in attractive and neat appearance, blend with the established home, and be submitted to the architectural control committee for approval before construction begins. The committee may also require protective screening around them. A separate paragraph bars an outbuilding, barn, shack, tent or garage from being used as a residence, temporarily or permanently. No size, height or setback figure is given for a shed.
Boats, motor homes, trailers and other recreational vehicles are handled by placement rather than by an outright ban. They may not be at a location nearer the front lot line than the minimum building setback line shown on the recorded plat, which leaves the ground behind that setback line as the place this paragraph does not restrict. Separately, no vehicle or boat of any type, moveable or immovable, may be parked on a street in the subdivision for longer than seven consecutive days. Two honest limits on this answer: the opening word of the paragraph is damaged in the copy on file, so whether it reads as storage or as parking is not legible, and the paragraph never mentions a garage, a size cap, or a number of vehicles.
The document says pools and tennis courts may not be erected, built or installed on any lot. Two things to weigh against that before assuming every pool is caught. The paragraph heading names in ground pools and tennis courts, while the sentence beneath it bars pools and tennis courts without repeating the words in ground, so whether an above-ground pool falls inside the ban is not settled on the face of the wording. And a different paragraph, on detached storage buildings, lists swimming pool apparatus among the things such a building may be used to store. The association or a title company can say how this has been applied here.
Written approval comes first. No building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a lot, and the natural topography or drainage of a lot may not be altered, until the construction plans have been approved by the architectural control committee. The plans must show the floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, harmony of external design with existing structures, and location with respect to lot lines, topography and finish grade. Two sets go in, one is kept and one returned to the builder. Approval or disapproval is in writing, nothing that does not comply fully with approved plans may be built or kept on a lot, and no change or deviation from approved plans may be made without the committee's prior written consent. One caveat about who approves today: the document says the committee's authority expires fifteen years after the plat was recorded, and the plat it refers to was recorded in 2000, so ask the association who reviews plans now.
There is a size line. The document bars exposed radio or television transmission or receiving antennas, and dishes over eighteen inches in diameter, from being erected, placed or maintained on any lot. A dish of eighteen inches or less is not caught by that size limit. The same sentence also sweeps in other devices without defining them, and the paragraph adds that a waiver given for one lot is not a waiver as to other lots or other antennas. Individual words in this sentence are damaged in the copy on file, including part of the phrase naming radio and television, so confirm the exact wording against the recorded original before paying for an installation.
Solar panels are addressed directly, and prior written approval is required. The document says the developer must approve the solar panel installation and its location in writing before construction. It names the developer rather than the architectural control committee, and elsewhere it says the association is turned over by the developer at the developer's sole discretion, so a buyer should ask the association who signs off on a solar installation today. No size, placement, color or screening standard is given, and roof-mounted and ground-mounted panels are not distinguished.
Yards must be planted, and some plantings are capped. The side, front and rear yards of each lot must be planted with grass seed, sod or ground cover within one hundred and twenty days after the structure is completed or occupied as a home, whichever is earlier, unless the architectural control committee approves otherwise. In the protective screening areas marked on the recorded plat, no screen planting over thirty-six inches high is permitted between the building setback line and the front lot line. On a corner lot, no hedge or shrub planting may obstruct sight lines between two and six feet above the roadway inside the twenty-five foot triangle at the intersection, and a tree there must have its foliage line kept high enough not to block that view. Altering a lot's natural topography or drainage also needs committee approval first.
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 →Dogs, cats and pet birds are allowed in reasonable numbers as pets; other animals, birds and fowl may not be kept. No animal may be kept or bred for a commercial purpose, and every animal must have proper care and restraint so as not to be offensive on account of noise, odor or unsanitary conditions. A dog may not run at large unless it is inside a permitted dog run or a fenced yard, or is with an attendant holding it firmly by collar and leash, with the leash no longer than eight feet. A cat may not run at large or be in any yard or enclosure other than its own owner's lot. No savage or dangerous animal may be kept. A dog whose barking can be heard on a frequent or continuing basis may not be kept in any residence or on any lot. Owners are fully responsible for damage their pet causes, must properly dispose of its waste, and are told not to curb pets near buildings, walkways, shrubbery or other public space. The association may require pets to be registered with it and may adopt further reasonable animal rules, so ask for the current set.
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 →One sign, and it is size-capped. 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. A builder may use a sign of any dimension to advertise the property during the construction and sales period, and the developer reserved a right to erect its own signs to promote and sell lots and structures in the development. Political, security, contractor and holiday signs are not named either way.
Street parking has a clock on it: no vehicle or boat of any type, moveable or immovable, may be parked on a street in the subdivision for longer than seven consecutive days. Driveways are specified too. Stone and cinder driveways are not permitted; a driveway must be at least twelve feet wide and built of asphalt at least three inches thick or concrete at least four inches thick, and a circular drive in front of a home may be a minimum of eight feet wide. Every dwelling must have a full size attached garage able to store at least two cars and no more than three. Recreational vehicles, boats and trailers have their own placement rule, and a vehicle on blocks or without a current license plate may not be stored outside an enclosed garage at any time. The document does not cap how many cars may sit on a driveway overnight.
A home occupation is permitted inside tight limits. A lot may be used only as a single-family residence, except for a use conducted entirely within the residence dwelling, participated in solely by a member of the immediate family living there, clearly incidental and secondary to using the home as a home, and not changing its character. Four conditions ride with it: no sign or display showing from the exterior that the building is used for anything other than a dwelling, no commodity sold on the premises, no person employed other than an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical equipment used. The document goes further and says a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-teller parlor, animal hospital, or any form of animal care or treatment such as dog trimming may not be treated as a home occupation. Builders staging model homes during the development's construction period are excepted from the paragraph.
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 →The document never uses the words repair, dismantle or service, but one sentence does reach a vehicle that is mid-repair: a vehicle on blocks or without a current license plate may not be stored outside an enclosed garage on any lot at any time. That leaves the inside of an enclosed garage as the place the sentence does not bar. Be aware of a gap in the copy on file: the text is damaged right where the sentence names what is covered, so the subject word itself is not legible, while the condition about blocks, license plates and the garage reads clearly. Nothing in the document speaks to working on a car in a driveway for an afternoon.
No lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish. Trash, garbage and other waste may not be kept except in sanitary containers, and all equipment for storing or disposing of such material must be kept in a clean and sanitary condition. The document does not say where containers must sit between collections, and it does not require them to be screened from view.
The document has one fires paragraph and its reach is streets and roadways: no fire may be permitted to burn upon any street or roadway in the subdivision. On the face of that wording, a contained cooking fire on a lot or a patio is not what the sentence bars. Grills are never named in the document, charcoal or gas, so nothing here speaks to them directly. The nuisance paragraph, which bars obnoxious or offensive activity, is the general rule a smoke complaint would fall under.
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.