What the recorded documents actually say about Falcons Nest at Barrington in New Paris — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
16 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
WHAT THIS PAGE RESTS ON. One recorded instrument: the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of Falcons Nest at Barrington, a part of the Barrington Planned Unit Development, recorded in Elkhart County on October 12, 2007 as instrument 2007-28604. It runs to forty-one numbered paragraphs across thirty-three pages and was read from beginning to end. Two scans of the same recording are on file and they agree; the recording stamp and lot ranges were confirmed by reading the first page image directly.
READ THE NAME CAREFULLY. There are two similarly named developments here. This page is Falcons Nest at Barrington, declared in 2007 by New Paris Development Company. Falcons Lair at Barrington is a different subdivision, platted in 2022 and declared in 2023 by a different developer, with its own homeowners association and its own covenants. The Falcons Lair declaration was in the documents pulled for this neighborhood and was set aside; none of the answers below come from it. If the home you are looking at is in Falcons Lair, this page is not your covenant.
WHICH LOTS. The declaration covers lots 1 through 48, which it calls the Single Family Lots, and lots 49 through 62, which it calls the R-2 Lots. An R-2 lot may hold either one house or one building with two attached single-family homes sharing a party wall, each of which the declaration calls a Villa. Several restrictions read differently depending on which kind of lot you are on, and the minimum house sizes certainly do.
THIS IS A DETAILED COVENANT. It names flagpoles, basketball hoops, clotheslines, gazebos, grape arbors, garden size, how many trees to plant and how long a lease may run. Where it gives a number, the answer below gives the same number.
WHAT IT DOES NOT SETTLE. The association's bylaws and articles are referred to throughout and are not on file here, and they may add procedures, fines and rules of their own. The declaration names one-time fees but no annual assessment figure. Anything recorded after 2007 would not appear here. The recorded copy is a scan of paper rather than digital text, so individual words can be misread in conversion, which is why each answer carries the document's own wording.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU RELY ON IT. Have your title company or the Elkhart County Recorder confirm what is recorded against the specific lot and pull any later amendment, and ask the association for its bylaws, its rules and its current assessment.
Fencing is allowed behind the house and nowhere else without approval. No fence may be placed in front of the rear building line of the house, and unless the architectural control committee specifically approves it in writing, no fence of any type is permitted forward of that line. A dog run or other temporary pet fencing is handled separately: it needs committee approval for design, height, location and construction, may not enclose more than one hundred square feet, has to be totally screened from neighbours by shrubs, may not go in front of the house or in the front building setback, and no part of it may come within fifteen feet of the rear lot line. New screen planting over six feet high between the building setback line and the front lot line also needs written committee approval.
One shed is allowed per home, and the specification is exact. The declaration prohibits detached storage buildings generally, then permits a single free-standing storage unit for each dwelling unit site on six conditions: the committee approves it as part of the approval of the initial house plans or a later amendment to them; it sits on a permanent concrete foundation; its siding, roof, exterior doors, windows, lighting and other materials match the house in type, color, style, quality and finish; it does not block the expected sight lines and views from neighbouring homes; it stands no more than twelve feet behind the rear building line and never forward of it or off to the side; and it is no larger than one hundred twenty square feet. Firewood and other heating or recreational materials have to be kept inside the house or that storage unit, or covered and screened with plantings out of neighbours' sight to a standard the committee sets.
Two paragraphs bear on this and both limit rather than allow. The first gives a time window: mobile homes, house trailers, boats and boat trailers, motor homes, camping trailers, recreational vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles, dune buggies and their trailers may not be parked on a lot for longer than forty-eight hours continuously, or for more than forty-eight hours in any continuous ten-day period. The second says recreational and commercial vehicles, named as campers, school buses, trailers, trucks or boats, may not be kept in open areas, on or off the lot. That second clause never defines what an open area is and does not mention a garage in either direction, so a boat or camper kept inside a closed garage is not addressed by its wording. Between them the practical reading is that anything recreational parked in the open has a two-day window and no longer. The association, or your title company, is the place to ask how this is applied before you rely on it.
Above ground pools are not permitted, and neither are tennis courts. The declaration says so in one short paragraph and stops there - it never addresses an in-ground pool one way or the other. An in-ground pool would therefore fall under the general architectural control rule, which requires the committee's written approval before any structure or improvement is built or the grade or drainage of a lot is altered. So an in-ground pool is a question for the committee rather than something the covenant settles, and an above ground pool is out.
Approval comes first for anything built, placed or altered outside. No building or other structure, including a storage unit, may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a lot, and the grade or drainage may not be altered, until the plans have been approved by the architectural control committee. Plans have to show floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, how the external design sits with existing houses, and location against lot lines, topography and finish grade. Two complete sets go in, one is kept by the developer and one comes back, and approval or refusal is in writing. Nothing may be built that does not comply fully with the approved plans, and no deviation is allowed without prior written consent. The committee's decision is described as entirely within its discretion. Separate approvals are called out for gazebos, towers, windmills, lighthouses, arbors and artificial animals, and for the location of a television antenna or satellite dish.
There are three separate rules here. All utility service, including cable television, runs underground and out of sight. No outside above ground AM, FM or short wave radio antenna, and no tower of any type, may be erected or kept on a lot or structure. A television antenna is allowed if it rises no more than ten feet above the roof, with an effort made to shield it from the street and neighbours, and the committee approves its location in writing. A satellite dish of less than twenty-four inches across may be used, must always be located to the rear or the side of the house, and needs the committee's written approval before installation. Federal rules on antenna installation can also bear on how a clause like this is enforced, which is a question for a lawyer rather than for this page.
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 →Landscaping is required, approved and specified. A basic landscape plan has to be carried out, planting the side, front and rear yards with grass seed, sod or ground cover unless the committee approves otherwise, and finished within one hundred twenty days of the house being substantially complete, or as soon after as the weather allows. Each single family lot has to have two separate flowering trees with trunks at least two inches across planted in the front yard, and each villa site one such tree. Vegetable and flower gardens are capped at one thousand square feet, vegetation at eight feet, and may not go in a front yard or within fifteen feet of the rear lot line; gardens must be kept neat, compost may not be allowed to mound up, no sprinkler or shade structures may be built over them, and no produce may be raised commercially - landscaped flowerbeds next to the house are not counted as gardens. Lawn ornaments such as bird baths and landscape fountains are permitted so long as the owner maintains them and they do not become a visual annoyance, but towers, windmills, lighthouses, arbors, artificial animals and similar devices need written committee approval, as do gazebos, which are treated as detached buildings. Every lot has to be kept free of debris whether it is built on or not.
Mailboxes are uniform and were installed by the developer at the first owner's expense, paid at the initial closing. Every owner has to keep their mailbox in the style and condition originally established, or as the association later changes it. An R-2 lot developed with two attached homes is expected to have two mailboxes. External newspaper receptacles are not permitted.
Ordinary household pets are allowed, but this covenant is stricter than most about keeping them indoors. No animals, including live pigeons, livestock or poultry of any kind may be raised, bred or kept on a lot for commercial or personal use, except that dogs, cats or ordinary household pets may be kept, provided they are not kept, bred or maintained commercially. Dogs and cats cannot be housed or regularly kept outside the house, may not become a neighborhood nuisance, hazard or threat to public health and safety, and must be kept on the owner's lot at all times or in the owner's direct physical control. Pets may not be left outside the house at night. A dog run is possible but needs committee approval and is capped at one hundred square feet, fully screened by shrubs, behind the house and at least fifteen feet off the rear lot line.
Renting is allowed and the conditions are among the most detailed in this directory. Every lease entered into after the declaration was recorded must run at least six months and no longer than two years - and that cap catches rent-to-own and purchase contract arrangements too - unless the association's board approves otherwise in writing. Only the whole home may be let; no part of it may be leased and subleasing is not allowed. Every lease must be in writing, and a copy, which may have the rent redacted, goes to the board within thirty days of signing. Every lease has to tell the tenant they have been given the covenants, bylaws and articles and must follow them like an owner, has to be expressly subordinate to those documents, and has to allow the association or any owner to act directly against the tenant without joining the landlord - and if a lease omits that, the declaration says it is presumed anyway. Nothing in a lease releases the owner from their own obligations to the association.
The declaration answers half of this question directly. No basketball hoop or backboard may be attached to any structure or building on a lot, which rules out the common arrangement over the garage door. What it does not do is say anything about a free-standing pole hoop or a portable one on wheels, so those are not addressed by that sentence. Two other paragraphs bear on it: exterior play and leisure equipment has to be kept in good repair and not allowed to become a visual annoyance to neighbours, and may not be placed within fifteen feet of the rear lot line; and anything erected on a lot is subject to the committee's written approval under the architectural control rule.
One sign is allowed and the size is capped. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot except a single sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale, or a sign of any size used by a builder or the developer to advertise during the construction and sales period. The wording covers a sale but does not mention a rental sign, which is worth knowing given that leasing is expressly contemplated elsewhere in the same document.
Overnight street parking is out, and the declaration defines what overnight means. On-street parking on the public ways is subject to the county highway authority, and the declaration says every owner has a duty to avoid unnecessary parking or congestion on the streets and that overnight on-street parking is expressly prohibited, overnight meaning continuous parking on a public street from midnight or before through to five in the morning. Parking pads in front of the house are not permitted, and driveways have to be at least seventeen feet wide and built of brick or concrete. Boats, campers, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and similar equipment have their own forty-eight hour limit. Beyond that, nothing caps how many ordinary cars may sit on a driveway, and every house has an attached garage for up to three cars, or one to two cars for each villa on an R-2 lot.
This declaration has a paragraph headed Home Occupations and it does not permit one. A lot, single family or R-2, may not be used for any purpose other than as a single-family residence, and the paragraph then says plainly that no commercial activities of any kind may be carried on from the lot. There is no carve-out for a quiet business run from inside the house, which is the kind of exception several neighbouring subdivisions do write in, and no approval route is offered. What the document does not define is what counts as a commercial activity, so whether remote work with no clients, no employees and no signage is what the paragraph is aimed at is not something the text settles. If a home business matters to you, raise it with the association before you buy.
A short stay is ruled out by the minimum lease term rather than by naming any platform. Every lease entered into after the declaration was recorded has to run at least six months, unless the association's board approves otherwise in writing, and only the whole home may be let - no part of it may be leased and no subleasing is allowed. Nightly and weekly letting, and renting out a single room, are all outside that. The board can approve an exception in writing, so it is a question you could put to them rather than an absolute bar.
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 →Trash has to be contained and stored inside. No lot may be used as a dumping ground for rubbish or for dumping grass clippings and landscaping debris, and trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers, with the storage and disposal equipment kept clean and sanitary. The declaration defines waste broadly - discarded household furniture, appliances, building materials, tools, toys, automotive and other mechanical parts, and household fixtures not in use - and restricts storage of those items to inside the house or the garage, with exterior storage specifically forbidden. The association selects the garbage and trash collection service unless the municipality provides it. Every lot has to be kept free of debris whether it is built on or not.
The burning rule here is aimed at rubbish, not cooking. It says no burning on any lot, indoors or out, of household trash or garbage is permitted, whether or not an incinerator is used. The declaration never mentions a grill, a barbecue or a fire pit in either direction, so a contained cooking grill is not what that sentence reaches on the face of its wording. Firewood and other materials used for heating or recreational purposes are separately regulated: they have to be kept inside the house or the approved storage unit, or covered and screened with plantings out of neighbours' sight, to a standard the committee sets on written request. A general nuisance clause also applies to anything on a lot that becomes an annoyance in the neighborhood.
A line is allowed, but only a portable one and only during the day. No permanent above ground clothes line or visible support may be put up, kept or established on a lot. A portable or umbrella type may be used, and only for short periods of daylight. It may not be placed in a front yard and may not be left standing overnight.
Flagpoles are barred outright. The declaration devotes a one-line paragraph to it: no flag poles are allowed in the subdivision. It is one of the shortest and bluntest restrictions in the document. What it does not address is a flag on a bracket fixed to the house, which is a different thing from a pole - though attaching anything to the outside of the house is itself subject to the architectural control rule and to the committee's approval. Federal and Indiana law on displaying the United States flag can also bear on how a clause like this is enforced, which is a question for a lawyer rather than for this page.
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.