What the recorded documents actually say about Kensington Farms East P.U.D. in South Bend — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
30 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 the December 2015 amendment to the Rosemary Villas covenants. That amendment repealed and rescinded every earlier covenant and amendment for these lots and restated the rules from scratch, so it is the whole of the current recorded rule set rather than a change on top of an older one.
What it governs is the part of Kensington Farms East P.U.D. the document itself calls Rosemary Villas: the Final Plat of Section Five, recorded June 5, 1987; Section Five, Part 2, recorded May 19, 1988; and Lots 112, 113, 114, 176 and 177 of Section Five, Part 3, Phase 2.
Kensington Farms East P.U.D. is bigger than Rosemary Villas. Earlier sections of the same P.U.D. were platted separately in 1979 and after, and at least one other community inside the P.U.D. is a condominium regime with its own declaration, its own by-laws and its own association, whose rules differ from these on leasing and on assessments. If your home is not in Section Five, the rules on this page may not be the ones recorded against your parcel. The title company or the St. Joseph County Recorder can tell you which declaration is.
One caveat on the copy on file: it is a clean digital text that carries the signature block but no recorder stamp, so the recording date and instrument number of the 2015 amendment itself could not be read from it. The amendment recites the 1987 original as Document Number 8731780, while the recorder stamp on the scanned original filed here reads 8734780. If either number matters to you, confirm it at the Recorder.
Fences are not permitted. The paragraph that sets the corner-lot sight-line rules closes by saying no fences, walls or other screens are permitted on or near property lines, or in the yard of any lot. The same paragraph also bars screen planting over thirty-six inches high closer than twenty-five feet to the street right-of-way. If you want something at a property line, the Board is the place to start, because nothing in the recorded covenants creates a way to approve a fence.
A shed is not one of the buildings allowed on a lot. The covenants permit one detached single-family dwelling of not more than one story and a private garage for not more than four cars, and nothing else may be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain. A separate paragraph also bars a trailer, tent, shack, garage, barn or other outbuilding from being used on a lot as a residence at any time.
House trailers, motorhomes, truck campers, boats, off-road vehicles and commercial trucks and vans may not be parked or located on a lot at any time, with two openings written into the same paragraph. A member who owns a motorhome or truck camper may park it for loading or unloading for up to 24 hours. Service vehicles temporarily providing service to a homeowner are outside the clause. The covenants do not address keeping any of these inside a closed garage, so that question is not answered either way here.
Swimming pools are not permitted on any lot, temporary or permanent. The same one-sentence paragraph also bars fire pits, in the same terms.
Nothing 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 by the Board of Directors, which judges conformity and harmony of exterior design with the existing homes. The Board has seven days to approve or disapprove after plans are submitted. If it does not answer in that window, and no suit to stop the work has been filed before the work is finished, the covenants treat the approval requirement as satisfied.
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 →Solar is addressed at length, and the process is demanding. Under the Indiana statute the covenants cite, an owner petitions the other owners for approval and must gather signatures from at least sixty-five percent of the voting members, then bring those signatures and the supporting information to the Board. The petition has to include a site plan with property boundaries, a description of the dwelling, the color of the system, the vendor and installer, and the plans and specifications if asked for. The Board may deny or require removal if the system goes anywhere other than the roof of the applicant's dwelling, if it extends more than six inches above or beyond the roof or does not follow the roof slope with a top parallel to the roof line, if its frame, brackets, piping or wiring are not silver, bronze or black, if it sits on association or common property, if installation voids material warranties, if it differs significantly from what was presented, or if a court finds it unsafe or unlawful. If the system does meet those requirements, the covenants say the Board shall grant the request.
Routine lawn care is the association's job, not yours. The covenants have the association maintaining lawns, shrubbery, irrigation systems, fertilizer, mulch, grass cutting, snow removal from driveways, streets and sidewalks, and exterior painting of shutters, garage doors, front doors, service doors and street-visible trim in their original colors. What an owner may add is limited: no screen planting over thirty-six inches high closer than twenty-five feet to the street right-of-way, and on a corner lot nothing that blocks sight lines between two and six feet above the street inside the twenty-five foot triangle at the intersection. Plantings in the utility and drainage easements that would interfere with utilities or change drainage flow are also barred.
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 other household pets are permitted. Animals, livestock and poultry of any other kind may not be raised, bred or kept on a lot, and no pet may be raised, bred or kept for a commercial purpose. The covenants set no limit on the number of pets and say nothing about leashing or waste, so any rule on those would come from the association's own rules and regulations.
Renting out a home here is barred. The covenants say each villa unit is to be owner-occupied and not leased to others, and that the owner is to occupy the property as their principal residence after the deed is executed and to continue to do so. This is one of the stronger restrictions in the document, and it is worth confirming with the association how it is applied before buying as an investment.
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 of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent is allowed, and so is a sign announcing a security system if it is placed close to the house in the flower beds. Political signs get their own allowance: up to four signs no larger than twenty-four by twenty-four inches, in a window or on the ground on the owner's property, starting no more than thirty days before an election and coming down no more than five days after it. An owner selling the home may also put out an estate, tag or garage sale sign, posted for no more than two days and removed when the sale ends. Anything else displayed to public view is barred.
A member who owns and uses a pickup truck as their transportation vehicle has to keep it parked in the garage. Commercial trucks and commercial vans may not be parked or located on a lot at any time, and neither may house trailers, motorhomes, truck campers, boats or off-road vehicles, apart from the 24-hour loading window the same paragraph gives motorhome and truck camper owners. Service vehicles providing service to a homeowner are excluded. The covenants say nothing about ordinary cars in a driveway or about street parking.
The covenants limit a lot to residential use, and unlike many declarations in this county they do not carve out a home occupation or define one. Nothing in the document sets conditions under which a business could be run from the home. If you are planning to work from home in a way that brings clients, employees or deliveries to the property, ask the association how it reads this paragraph before you commit.
A short-term rental runs into the same paragraph as any other rental. Each villa unit is to be owner-occupied and not leased to others, and the owner is to occupy the property as their principal residence. The covenants do not mention short-term rentals or rental platforms by name, and they set no minimum lease term, because they do not contemplate leasing at all.
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, garbage and other waste may not be deposited on a lot except in sanitary containers, and no lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish. The covenants do not say where containers must be kept between collections or when they may go to the curb.
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.