What the recorded documents actually say about Sandbrooke in Millersburg — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
11 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 recorded Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of Sandbrooke, Section 1, Section 2 and Section 3, signed November 14, 2006 by the developer, Sandbrooke, Inc., and recorded in Elkhart County on November 30, 2006 under instrument number 2006 35127. The copy on file is a scan of paper, so individual words can be misread; the recording stamp, the instrument number, the lot schedule and the duration date were each checked against the page images by eye.
One declaration governs all three sections and all 34 platted lots. Section 1 is Lots 1 through 11, Section 2 is Lots 12, 13, 23 through 27 and 32 through 34, and Section 3 is Lots 14 through 22 and 28 through 31. Almost every rule reads the same in all three sections. The one that does not is minimum house size: Section 1 requires 1,400 square feet of living area for a single story, 1,500 for a one and one-half story and 1,650 for a two story, while Sections 2 and 3 require 1,300, 1,400 and 1,600.
The declaration lets the developer add adjacent land later by recording a plat stating that the land is subject to these covenants. No later plat and no recorded amendment is on file here. If the home you are looking at sits in a section or phase numbered above three, confirm with the title company what governs it.
Two scans of that same 2006 recording are on file, and one of them has a July 2007 letter from the Architectural Control Committee to lot owners attached in front of it. That letter is not a recorded amendment. It is used here only for what it says about the committee and about swimming pools, and it is identified as a letter every place it is relied on.
These documents create no homeowners association, no dues and no assessments. The developer and any lot owner may enforce the covenants directly.
No copy of the recorded plats is on file here, so lot lines, easements and platted setback lines could not be read. The declaration says a residence or ancillary building is built to county standards and setbacks rather than printing its own. Order the plat and a current title commitment from the Recorder or the title company before relying on any boundary or setback.
Fences are allowed, but only in three forms and only with written approval from the Architectural Control Committee. The permitted enclosures are chain link no more than four feet high, split rail three rails high and no more than four feet high, or a privacy fence around the immediate patio no more than six feet. Any fence has to conform to the architectural standards set by the style of the home, and the committee can approve a variance from the fence requirement in writing. Hedges and shrub plantings that block the sightline between two and four feet above the roadway in a front yard are not permitted. Improvements that do not follow these guidelines may be removed by the committee at the homeowner's expense.
One accessory building or yard barn is allowed per lot, it goes in the rear yard, and it needs Architectural Control Committee approval. The declaration sets the specifications: one story high, a gabled roof covered with asphalt shingles, sides covered with the same material as the exterior of the main house, and a maximum area of 170 square feet. It has to be built from new materials only, and it cannot be built before the main house is built and occupied. A structure that does not meet those specifications goes to the committee for a determination, and one that does not follow the guidelines may be removed at the owner's expense. No shed, barn, garage or other outbuilding may be used as a residence at any time.
The documents never use the words camper, motor home, recreational vehicle or boat, in either direction. What the declaration does say is that storage or parking of machinery, lawn equipment, automobiles or other vehicles, licensed or unlicensed, is allowed only within the confines of the permitted structure on the owner's property. Read on its face that points a vehicle into the garage or an approved building rather than the driveway or the yard. Separately, no semi-truck and trailer or commercial equipment may be parked or kept on any lot at any time, other than temporarily in driveways during construction or alteration of a home. Worth knowing for size: the required attached garage is at least 24 by 24 feet, and the one permitted yard barn is capped at 170 square feet. Because the recreational vehicles themselves are never named, how the committee applies this to a camper or a boat is not settled by the document, so get its position in writing before you buy if you plan to keep one here.
The recorded declaration never mentions swimming pools. The Architectural Control Committee's July 2007 letter to lot owners, which is filed together with the covenants here, says a swimming pool of any kind needs Elkhart County Health Department approval before any installation takes place, and that the committee reviews house plans, additions, future accessory buildings and fences. No size, placement, fencing or screening rule for a pool appears in either document. Confirm with the committee and with the county what approvals a pool needs before you plan one.
Plans and specifications for a home must be approved in writing by the Architectural Control Committee before any construction starts, and the declaration says the committee's decision is entirely within its discretion. Written committee approval is also required for a garage larger than half the floor area of the house, for the one permitted accessory building, for fences, and for anything placed or affixed on the outside walls or roof such as solar panels, satellite dishes or antennas. The committee's 2007 letter to owners says it reviews additions as well. The declaration also sets its own building standards: at least 25 percent of the front exterior in masonry such as stone or brick, no roll siding or roofing, new materials only, a permanent poured concrete basement under every building except yard barn foundations, a roof pitch of at least 6/12 with an 18 inch minimum overhang, a narrowest ground-level dimension of at least 12 feet, a concrete driveway at least 17 feet wide from curb to garage, and an attached two-car garage of at least 576 square feet built at the same time as the house. Homes must be completed within nine months of the start of construction unless the committee grants a written extension. The declaration sets no deadline for the committee to answer a request.
Satellite dishes and radio or television antennas need prior written approval from the Architectural Control Committee, and none of them may be located in the front of the home at any time. Dishes may not be placed in front or side yard areas, or anywhere they are visible from the roadway fronting the property. A dish in an allowed rear yard area has to be screened with foliage or placed so it is obscured from each neighbor's view. A dish under 20 inches in diameter does not require the foliage screening, but it still may not go in the front yard area between the front of the home and the street. Small roof-mounted television antennas under five feet are exempt from this paragraph; they go on the rear slope of the roof, screened from street view.
Solar panels are named directly. They may not be placed or affixed on the lot, or on the outside walls or roof of the home, except with prior written approval of the Architectural Control Committee, and at no time may they be located in the front of the home. The declaration sets no limit on size, colour or number of panels and gives the committee no deadline to answer. If the roof face that suits your system is at the front of the house, that is the point to settle with the committee before you commit to an installation.
Landscaping is required rather than optional. Every homesite needs at least a properly prepared and seeded lawn and a minimum of two trees, one inch in diameter and six feet tall, finished within 12 months of occupancy. Owners also have to keep lawns, shrubs and trees neat and clean and take part in maintaining water retention areas and access easements as may be required. Grass and other vegetative cover may not exceed six inches on an improved lot or 12 inches on an unimproved lot, and an owner who lets it go may be charged a mowing fee by the developer, which may enter the lot to do the work. Hedges and shrubs that block the sightline between two and four feet above the roadway in a front yard are not permitted, and no structure, permanent or mobile, may sit in a drainage or utility easement. Each home also has to have a photo cell or automatic dusk-to-dawn post light on the front property line within five feet of the driveway.
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 →House pets are allowed. Wild animals and domesticated farm animals, livestock, fowl, pigeons and poultry are not, and no dog, cat or other household pet may be kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose. The declaration sets no number limit and names no breed. It does restrict where a pet lives: house pets cannot be housed or regularly kept outside the dwelling unit, and pets may not be left outside the owner's home at night, which on its face rules out an outdoor kennel or run as a pet's living quarters. When a dog or cat is outside and not within sight of a personal attendant it has to be tethered or leashed and kept on the owner's property. A pet that becomes a neighborhood nuisance, hazard or threat to public health and safety is a violation of the covenants.
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 sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot, with two exceptions the declaration names. One sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent is allowed, and a builder may use a sign of any size to advertise the property during the construction and sales period. The developer also reserved the right to put up its own signs to promote and sell lots and homes here. Political, contractor and security signs are not addressed separately, so on the face of this wording they would fall under the general restriction; the committee is the place to confirm how it is applied.
The declaration says no storage or parking of machinery, lawn equipment, automobiles or other vehicles, licensed or unlicensed, is allowed except within the confines of the permitted structure on the owner's property. Read on its face that points vehicles into the garage or an approved building, and the paragraph does not carve out everyday driveway parking. No semi-truck and trailer or commercial equipment may be parked or kept on any lot at any time, other than temporarily in driveways during construction or alteration of a home. Every motor vehicle has to be equipped at all times for on-road driving. Each home needs a concrete driveway at least 17 feet wide running from the curb to the garage, plus concrete aprons of at least three feet by three feet on lots not on a cul-de-sac, and a home occupation may not be one that requires off-street parking under local codes. Nothing in the documents addresses parking on the street. Ask the committee how the storage paragraph is applied day to day before you rely on either reading.
A home occupation may be permitted, but the declaration draws the lines tightly. It has to be conducted entirely within the home, carried on solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and be clearly incidental and secondary to use of the home as a residence. There may be no sign or display showing from the outside, no commodity sold on the lot, no employee other than an immediate family member living there, no activity that requires off-street parking under local codes, and no mechanical or power equipment. The declaration also names trades that do not count as a home occupation at all: a vehicle repair shop, barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, massage parlor, animal hospital, and any form of animal care or treatment such as trimming or grooming. A sales office authorized by the developer for selling property here is permitted.
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 →This is one of the few covenants in the area that names vehicle repair directly. Repair of machinery, lawn equipment, automobiles or other vehicles, licensed or unlicensed, is allowed only within the confines of the permitted structure on the owner's property, which on its face means inside the garage or an approved building rather than in the driveway. No motor vehicle may be taken apart or left in a state of disassembly on any lot; every vehicle has to be equipped at all times for on-road driving, so a project car sitting outside would be a problem under this wording. Running a vehicle repair shop out of the home is separately excluded from what counts as a permitted home occupation.
No lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish, trash, garbage or other waste, and all of it has to be kept in sanitary containers. Incinerators and any other equipment for storing or disposing of waste must be kept clean and sanitary and properly concealed from public view. The declaration does not say where a container may sit on collection day and does not require a screened enclosure for the can itself. Two related rules: open trash burning after the home is completed is not allowed unless it follows the county burning ordinance, and no bulk fuel, oil or other hazardous products are allowed on any lot.
The documents never mention a grill or a barbecue, in either direction. The only fire-related restriction is about burning trash: open trash burning after the home is completed is not allowed unless it is in accordance with the county burning ordinance. On the face of that wording a contained cooking grill is a different thing from open trash burning, but the document does not say so, so an owner who wants certainty should ask the Architectural Control Committee. The covenant itself points to the county burning ordinance, which is worth checking separately for any open fire.
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.