What the recorded documents actually say about Sagewood Estates in Mishawaka — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
25 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 1993 covenants for Sagewood Estates, recorded August 9, 1993 as Document Number 9330978, together with the two amendments recorded later the same year. Both amendments change only one thing, the minimum floor area of a dwelling, so the rest of the 1993 text is what governs.
What that declaration covers is Sagewood Estates, Section One, the plat recorded June 3, 1993 as Instrument Number 9320381, about 11.58 acres in Penn Township, and it divides shared costs twenty-nine ways.
Sagewood Estates is larger than that. A later plat, Sagewood Estates Phase Three, Section One, lots 114 through 129 and 153 through 163, got its own declaration in 1997, and that one is not the same set of rules. It creates a homeowners association with a board, which the 1993 declaration does not, and it permits satellite dishes under nineteen inches in diameter, which the 1993 declaration bans outright. There are also Sagewood Villa lots with their own association documents. If your home is not in Section One, some of the answers on this page may be the wrong ones for your lot, and the satellite answer in particular. The title company or the St. Joseph County Recorder can tell you which declaration is recorded against your parcel.
Two self-expiring provisions matter here. The Architectural Control Committee's powers ceased on and after July 30, 2004 unless the owners of seventy-five percent of the lots recorded an instrument appointing a replacement before that date, and the developer's cost-sharing and control arrangements ended on the same date. So the approval process described on this page may no longer have anyone running it. Check with the Recorder and with the neighbours before assuming either way.
Because the recorded copy is a scan of paper rather than digital text, it was read by optical character recognition, so nothing here is presented as a direct quote from the summary. The verbatim wording sits beside each answer.
There is no general ban on fences, but two limits apply. No screen planting or fence over thirty-six inches high is permitted closer than twenty-five feet to the street right-of-way. And on a corner lot, no fence, wall, hedge or shrub planting that blocks sight lines between two and six feet above the street may be placed or remain inside the triangle formed by the street property lines and a line joining them twenty-five feet from the intersection; the same sight limit applies on any lot within ten feet of where a street property line meets a driveway or alley. Walls installed by the developer are excepted. Separately, plans for building on a lot had to go to the Architectural Control Committee, whose powers the covenants say ceased in 2004 unless owners recorded a replacement.
A shed is not among the buildings the covenants allow. Only one detached single-family dwelling of not more than two and a half stories and a private garage for not more than four cars may be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain on a lot. A separate paragraph bars a trailer, basement, tent, shack, garage, barn or other outbuilding from being used on a lot as a residence, temporarily or permanently, though it does not exclude modular construction.
House trailers, motor homes, large trucks and boats may not be parked or located on any lot at any time, temporarily or permanently. This paragraph is stricter than the version used in many neighbourhoods nearby: it reaches the whole lot rather than open areas, it names no time allowance for loading or unloading, and it offers no garage exception. It also has an open-ended tail, other offensive objects, which the covenants do not define. If you own a camper or a boat, treat this as a real obstacle and get the current position in writing before you buy.
Above-ground swimming pools are not allowed on any lot. The covenants say nothing at all about in-ground pools, in either direction, so an in-ground pool is not addressed by this document. Building one would still run through the architectural approval paragraph if that approval requirement is still in force, which is itself an open question here.
As written, no building may be erected, placed or altered until the construction plans, the specifications and a plan showing the location have been approved in writing for conformity and harmony of exterior design with the existing homes. The reviewer was a one-person Architectural Control Committee, with the developer able to appoint a replacement, and it had seven days to approve or disapprove; if it did not answer in that window and no suit to stop the work was filed before completion, approval was treated as given. The important qualifier is in the same paragraph: the covenants say the committee's powers and duties ceased on and after July 30, 2004, unless before then the record owners of seventy-five percent of the lots signed and recorded an instrument appointing a representative. So whether anyone can approve or refuse an exterior change today depends on whether that instrument exists. Check with the Recorder before you assume either way.
The covenants ban exposed or exterior radio and television transmitting and receiving devices, naming satellite dishes specifically, on any lot, house or building in the subdivision. There is no size exception and no approval route written into the document. Note that the later declaration for Sagewood Estates Phase Three, Section One does allow dishes under nineteen inches, so an owner in that part of the development is under a different rule than this one.
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 →All yards in front of the house must be in grass and maintained by the owner. Beyond that the limits are about sight lines: nothing over thirty-six inches, planting or fence, closer than twenty-five feet to the street right-of-way, and on a corner lot nothing between two and six feet above the street inside the twenty-five foot triangle at the intersection, with the same limit within ten feet of where a driveway meets the street. Trees may not remain within those distances unless the foliage line is kept high enough to keep sight lines clear. In the utility and drainage easements shown on the plat, no planting may be placed or remain that would damage or interfere with utilities or change or slow drainage flow. The easement area of a lot and everything on it is maintained by the owner, except improvements a utility or public authority is responsible for.
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. Other animals, livestock and poultry may not be raised, bred or kept on a lot, and no pet may be raised, bred or kept for a commercial purpose. The paragraph ends with an exception for horses on five-acre tracts, which is unusual for a plat of this size and may be a clause the developer carried over from other work. The covenants set no limit on the number of pets and say nothing about leashing.
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 of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent is allowed, and so are signs used by a builder to advertise during the construction and sales period. Anything else displayed to public view on a lot is barred. The covenants say nothing about political, security or contractor signs.
Ordinary cars are not addressed. What the covenants restrict is what kind of vehicle may sit on a lot: house trailers, motor homes, large trucks and boats, and other offensive objects, may not be parked or located on any lot at any time, temporarily or permanently. There is no rule about street parking, driveway parking of passenger cars, or overnight guests.
The covenants limit a lot to residential use in one flat sentence, and they do not define or carve out a home occupation the way many declarations in this county do. Nothing in the document sets conditions under which a business could be run from the home. If you plan to work from home in a way that brings clients, employees, deliveries or signage to the property, get the position in writing from whoever is enforcing the covenants before you commit.
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 →No lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish, and trash, garbage and other waste may not be deposited on a lot except in sanitary metal containers. Incinerators and any other equipment for storing or disposing of that material must be kept clean and sanitary. 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.