What the recorded documents actually say about Spring Mill Estates in South Bend — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
9 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
Read from the 4-page scan hoa__spring-mill-estates__4, instrument 9241079, recorded 1992. All four page images under data/vision_pages/hoa__spring-mill-estates__4/ were read by eye because the OCR dropped the heading of paragraph 1 and mangled the middle of paragraph 10, the pets clause. The images confirmed the document runs 1 through 27 with no gap and ends with the developer signature. RECOVERED DOCUMENTS. This input's source list named only the 4-page scan, while four further OCR'd document sets, 89 pages in total, sat on disk under this slug with no marker saying so. All four were read from data/ocr_text/ before this page was answered, and none of them governs Spring Mill Estates. They are the Woodbridge Condominiums horizontal property regime: hoa__spring-mill-estates (45 pages) and __2 (24 pages) are the 1980 Declaration of Horizontal Property Ownership for Woodbridge Condominiums, __3 (19 pages) is the Code of By-Laws of Woodbridge Association, Inc., and __5 (1 page) is a 1984 amendment to that declaration, instrument 8823504. Two further amendments to the same Woodbridge declaration sit at the tail of the 45-page set, a 1988 unit-owner vote and a 2000 membership vote, both amending its paragraph 17 on leasing. Measured across all 89 recovered pages: 56 occurrences of Woodbridge Condominiums, Woodbridge Village Condominiums or Woodbridge Association, and zero occurrences of the word spring in any form. The word Woodbridge appears nowhere in the Spring Mill Estates declaration. So the two sets of documents share no name, no declarant and no instrument number. NEWER INSTRUMENT CHECK. Nothing recovered is a newer instrument for this neighborhood. The Woodbridge chain runs 1980, 1984, 1988 and 2000, but it amends a different community's declaration; the Spring Mill Estates instrument, 9241079 from 1992, is the only recorded instrument in this pull that declares this subdivision, and no amendment to it was found anywhere in the corpus. WORTH KNOWING
The only fence rule in this declaration is about sight lines at corners, not about height, material or approval. On a corner lot, no fence, wall, hedge or shrub that blocks the view between two and six feet above the roadway may stand inside the triangle formed by the two street lines and a line joining them 25 feet back from the intersection. The same limit applies within ten feet of where a driveway meets a street line. Outside those corner triangles the document sets no fence height, no material list and no approval step. Paragraph 25 does treat privacy fencing as an accepted way to screen a parked recreational vehicle, which tells you privacy fences were contemplated, but no clause states how tall or what style.
Detached storage buildings are allowed and are actually assumed by the document, but they carry conditions. A shed for lawn tools, toys, pool equipment or other personal property must be of quality construction, kept in attractive and neat appearance, and must blend with the home. The developer is given authority to require protective screening around it. The document sets no size limit, no height limit and no setback for a shed, and names no committee that approves one. Separately, paragraph 6 forbids using an outbuilding, trailer, tent or shack as a residence at any time, temporarily or permanently.
A recreational vehicle or trailer may sit on the property for seven days. After that it must be removed, or stored on the property out of sight, and the document names two ways to do that: inside garage storage, or behind privacy fencing. The clause covers recreational vehicles and trailers by name; it does not separately mention boats, campers or motorhomes. Paragraph 5 separately bars keeping junk cars outside the residence.
Swimming pools are permitted, with two conditions stated in a single short sentence: wood decks must be attached to the pool, and pool supplies must be kept in storage buildings. The document sets no fencing requirement of its own for a pool, no size limit and no approval step, and does not distinguish above-ground from in-ground. State and county pool barrier codes apply regardless of what the covenants say.
This declaration sets up no architectural review committee, so there is no board to submit plans to and no approval form. What it does limit is what the building can be. Paragraph 1 says no dwelling may be erected, altered, placed or left on a lot other than one single-family dwelling of not more than two stories, with a private garage for not more than three cars. Paragraph 2 adds minimum finished floor area by style, 1,000 square feet for a ranch and 1,400 square feet for a one-and-a-half story or two story, measured without one-story open porches and garages, and requires a full-size attached garage holding at least two but not more than three cars. Paragraph 3 sets the building location, no nearer than eight feet to a side lot line with two side yards totaling at least twenty feet, and no nearer to the road than the setback shown on the recorded plat. Nothing in the document governs paint colors, siding, roofing or windows.
Satellite dishes are prohibited outright. Paragraph 24 bars any dish on the dwelling or on the lot the dwelling sits on, and extends the ban to any adjacent lot the same owner happens to own. The sentence repeats a phrase, which is how it reads in the recorded typescript. The document says nothing about antennas that are not dishes. Buyers should know that federal over-the-air-reception rules can limit how far a private covenant like this one is actually enforceable against a small dish, which is a question for a lawyer rather than something this document answers.
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 sets no general landscaping standard, no lawn maintenance requirement and no plant list. Its one planting rule is the corner sight-line clause: a hedge or shrub that blocks the view between two and six feet above the roadway may not stand in the corner triangle 25 feet back from an intersection, or within ten feet of a driveway, and a tree in that area has to have its foliage line kept high enough not to block the sight line. One other yard requirement sits in paragraph 17: every residence is to have at least one front-yard light that turns itself on by electric eye or timer.
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 and cats are permitted as household pets. Other animals are not: the clause opens by saying no animals may be raised, bred or kept on any lot, then carves out dogs and cats. Two conditions ride along with the carve-out. The pets may not be kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose, and they may not be allowed to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard in any manner. The document puts no number on how many pets a household may have, and says nothing about breed, size or leashing. The heading on this paragraph is Livestock and Poultry, so the practical effect is that chickens, horses and similar animals are 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 →Signs are banned from public view with two exceptions. An owner may display one sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or for rent. A builder may use a sign of any size to advertise the property during the construction and sales period. Everything else, of any kind, is off limits to public view on a lot. The document says nothing about political, contractor, security or holiday signs, so those fall under the general ban as written.
The document has no street-parking rule, no driveway-parking rule and no limit on how many cars a household may have. It restricts two specific things. Junk cars may not be kept outside the residence, a clause that sits inside the nuisance paragraph. Recreational vehicles and trailers get seven days, then must be removed or hidden from view in a garage or behind privacy fencing. Every home is also required to have an attached garage that holds at least two cars and no more than three, and driveways have to be asphalt or concrete rather than stone or cinder, with asphalt at least four inches thick.
A home occupation is expressly permitted, inside a narrow definition. It has to be carried on within the residence itself, and it has to be participated in solely by a member of the immediate family living in that residence. That wording rules out an employee or a partner who lives elsewhere, and rules out a detached building as the workplace. Otherwise the lot may be used only as a single-family residence. The document sets no limit on customer traffic, deliveries or hours, and does not mention business signage, though the sign clause separately bans any sign other than a for-sale or for-rent sign.
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 →Trash, garbage and other waste have to be kept in sanitary containers, and no lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish. Any incinerator or other equipment for storing or disposing of waste has to be kept clean and sanitary. The document does not say where containers must be stored between pickups, does not set a screening requirement for them, and names no collection day or hauler.
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.