What the recorded documents actually say about Westleaf Manor in Elkhart — 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
These answers come from the Amended and Restated Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions for Westleaf Manor and Westleaf Manor Second, recorded in Elkhart County on December 17, 2024 as instrument 2024-20968. It states on its own face that it supersedes every earlier version, and it reaches the whole neighborhood: Lots 1 through 28 on the first plat and Lots 29 through 59 on the second. So whichever Westleaf Manor lot you are looking at, this is the document that governs it, and no part of the subdivision is answered here out of something else.
Two older recorded declarations are no longer the rules, and copies of them still circulate in listing packets. The 2005 declaration for Lots 1 through 28 and the 2007 declaration for Lots 29 through 59 were both replaced in December 2024. A third copy in circulation is only a draft of the 2024 declaration, the version mailed to owners for signature before it passed; it carries no recording stamp and its certification page is blank. Before you rely on any copy a seller hands you, look for the December 17, 2024 recording stamp on the first page.
The association By-Laws are a separate recording, dated September 19, 2016, instrument 2016-18988. They are governance and money mechanics only and contain no use restrictions, so nothing in the answers above comes from them except the assessment timing described in the association section. They print no dues figure either. Ask the association for the current assessment, and for anything pending, before you write an offer.
The recorded copy on file is a scan of paper read by optical character recognition, so individual words can be misread. Anything you intend to act on is worth confirming against the Elkhart County Recorder's own copy, or through your title company.
Fencing is allowed but tightly specified, and every fence needs written permission first. In front of the rear building line of the house, the only fence permitted is a decorative one no taller than two feet six inches. Rear-yard fencing may go up to six feet and must be vinyl or PVC. Anything outside those limits has to be approved in writing by the Architectural Control Committee, and the declaration adds that all fencing, whatever the type or location, needs the Committee's written consent before it goes in. Putting up a structure without that approval exposes the owner to a one thousand dollar fine under the architectural-control paragraph.
A storage shed is possible, but only with the Committee's written approval, and only as a permanent building. The declaration says no building of any kind, including storage sheds, garden sheds, pool houses, bath houses, any other accessory building, or an enclosed pool, may be placed on a lot without the Committee's written approval, and the Committee approves the location as well as the plans. Separately, the declaration bars temporary structures outright: no structure of a temporary character, cellar, shack, garage, barn, tool shed, storage shed, or other outbuilding of any type may be used on a lot at any time, except during construction of the house or temporary maintenance of it. A detached outbuilding or garage also cannot go up before the house does.
The declaration names permitted places rather than banning the vehicle. Major recreational equipment is defined broadly, covering recreational vehicles, motor homes, boats and boat trailers, personal watercraft and their trailers, snowmobiles and snowmobile trailers, travel trailers, pickup campers, motorized dwellings, tent trailers, storage or transport trailers, and the cases or boxes used to carry recreational gear. None of it may be parked or stored on a lot except in a carport, in an enclosed building, or behind the nearest portion of a building to the street. On top of that, such equipment may sit on a lot for up to seven days at a time while in season. It may not be used for living, sleeping or housekeeping anywhere in the subdivision, parked or stored. Note that the garage itself is capped at three single-car entry spaces and is not to be larger than needed for three cars, so a tall or long unit may not physically fit the permitted indoor space.
An in-ground swimming pool is possible with prior written approval from the Architectural Control Committee. An above-ground pool is not permitted in any instance, with no exception written in. An enclosed pool is also treated as a building and needs the Committee's written approval before it is placed on the lot. Tennis courts are handled the same way as pools and need the same prior written approval.
Nothing structural happens on a lot without the Architectural Control Committee's written approval first. No building or other structure, and no addition to one, may be erected, constructed, placed or maintained on a lot, and the natural topography or drainage of a lot may not be altered, until the plans have been approved. A complete set of plans must be submitted showing the floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, harmony of external design with existing structures, location relative to lot lines, topography, and finish grade elevations. The Committee answers in writing, and no change or deviation from approved plans may be made without its prior written consent. The Committee also reserves the right to require exterior details such as steeper roof pitches, porches or trim details to keep the street consistent. Starting work without that approval can draw a one thousand dollar fine. Awnings need Committee approval as well. The Committee is the Board of Directors of the association or people the Board appoints, and the declaration says its decision is entirely within its discretion.
The starting point is a ban. No outside above-ground television, AM, FM or short wave radio antenna of any type, and no television satellite disk or earth receiving station of any type, may be put up or kept on a lot or structure. The declaration then carves out one exception: a single satellite dish, no more than twenty inches in circumference, is permitted on a lot with a house on it, provided it is attached on the back half of the roof in an inconspicuous location and that location is inconspicuous from the street in front of the house. Twenty inches in circumference is an unusually small measurement as written, and smaller than the diameter figure most covenants of this era use, so confirm with the association how it is applied before buying equipment. All public utility service, including cable television and other communications, is required to be underground and out of sight.
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 not optional here, and one requirement carries real cost. Every lot owner must have a landscaped and grass-seeded or sodded yard, and must keep every structure, the lawn and the landscaping to a reasonable aesthetic standard. On a newly built house the yard must be landscaped and seeded or sodded within four months of completion, weather permitting; a separate paragraph gives one hundred eighty days after the house is finished, or when it is occupied, whichever comes first. The one to budget for: all lots must have an underground irrigation system able to water all sodded areas adequately, kept in good working order and run enough to keep things growing. All lots must be mowed, trimmed and free of debris at all times, vacant or not. Grading, planting, sodding or surface covering between the front lot line and the street may not be done in a way that impedes storm drainage, and each owner maintains the drainage system on the lot.
The mailbox is standardized. Every house must have a mailbox of the same design and type as the Architectural Control Committee specifies, and the owner is responsible for maintaining it. The declaration does not print the specification, so ask the association which box and post are current before replacing one. A dusk-to-dawn electric post light of a style and type the Committee specifies is also required on each lot.
Ordinary household pets are allowed; farm animals are not. Dogs, cats and other ordinary household pets may be kept so long as they are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose. No animals of any kind, including pigeons, livestock or poultry, may be raised, bred or kept on a lot for either commercial or personal use. The restrictions on how a pet is kept are stricter than most covenants in this county. Dogs and cats may not become a neighborhood nuisance, hazard or threat to public health and safety. Whenever a pet is outside the house and not within sight of a personal attendant it must be tethered or leashed and kept on the owner's own lot, and no pet may ever roam freely outside the house. The declaration also says no pet or animal shall be left outside the house at night, which rules out leaving a dog out overnight. No number limit is given.
This is the clause to settle with the board before you buy if renting matters to you, because the heading and the sentence under it do not say quite the same thing. The paragraph is headed Home Occupations, Rentals Prohibited. The operative sentence says each lot shall be owner-occupied and may not at any time be leased or rented to anyone who is not the owner of record for a period in excess of six months without the prior consent of the Board of Directors. Read literally, a lease longer than six months needs the Board's prior consent, while the owner-occupancy requirement sits alongside it. The declaration does not define owner-occupied, does not say what the Board will or will not consent to, and sets no cap on the number of rented lots. Get the Board's position in writing rather than reading the heading or the sentence alone.
A basketball hoop is allowed on a pole, not on the house. No hoop or backboard may be attached to the house. A hoop and backboard may be attached to a metal pole and placed in an appropriate location on the lot, but only where the Architectural Control Committee specifically approves it. So the approval is about the pole's position, and the declaration does not say what counts as an appropriate location, which is worth asking the Committee before buying and setting one.
One sign, and it has to be small. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot, with two exceptions: one sign of not more than five square feet advertising the house or lot for sale, and a sign of any size used by a builder to advertise during the construction and sales period. The developer kept a reserved right to put up its own sales and promotional signs. Political signs, contractor signs, security signs, garage-sale signs and holiday displays are not named either way, so the general ban is what a buyer should plan around. A home occupation is separately barred from any exterior sign or display.
Day-to-day parking is regulated in three ways. Any vehicle or trailer of any kind, or parts of one, that does not carry current license plates may not be parked or stored on a lot unless it is inside a completely enclosed building, and that applies whether it runs or not. On-street parking is prohibited except in an emergency or temporarily, which the declaration defines as less than twenty-four hours. All vehicles, licensed or not, should be parked in driveways, garages, or otherwise out of the public right of way. Driveways must be concrete at least four inches thick and at least sixteen feet wide, matching the garage door width, with circular drives having two street access points allowed at a ten-foot minimum; stone, dirt and cinder driveways are not permitted. Recreational vehicles, boats and trailers have their own rule, covered under the recreational vehicles question.
A home occupation is permitted, but the conditions are narrow and all of them have to be met. The use must be conducted entirely inside the house, carried on solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and be clearly incidental and secondary to living in the house without changing its character. On top of that: no sign or display showing from the outside that the building is used for anything but a residence; no commodity sold on the lot; nobody employed other than an immediate family member living on the lot; no activity that local codes would require off-street parking for; and no mechanical or electrical equipment beyond electrical office equipment. Several businesses are named as never qualifying, including an implement or vehicle repair shop, a tea room, a fortune-telling parlor, a massage parlor, an animal hospital, and any form of animal care or treatment such as trimming or grooming.
The declaration never uses the words short-term, nightly, vacation rental or any platform name, and sets no minimum lease term. What it does say bears on the question directly: no lot may be used for any purpose other than as a single-family residence, and each lot shall be owner-occupied, with any lease or rental to a non-owner longer than six months requiring the Board of Directors' prior consent. The consent requirement as written is triggered by a term over six months, so a nightly or weekly stay is not what that sentence reaches, while the owner-occupancy requirement in the same sentence points the other way. That tension is unresolved on the face of the document, so anyone buying with a short-term rental in mind should get the Board's written position first rather than relying on either reading.
The only repair the declaration names is repair as a business. An implement or vehicle repair shop is expressly excluded from the home occupations that are permitted, so running one from the house is out. Nothing in the document addresses an owner working on their own car, and there is no clause about vehicles on blocks, dismantled vehicles, or servicing in a driveway. What does limit it in practice is the storage rule: any vehicle or trailer, or parts of one, without current license plates may not be parked or stored on a lot except inside a completely enclosed building, whether it runs or not, and exterior storage of automotive and other mechanical parts is specifically forbidden under the refuse paragraph. So a project car that loses its plates or gets taken apart in the driveway runs into those rules even though repair itself is not mentioned.
Containers and where things are stored are both covered. No lot may be used or kept as a dumping ground for rubbish, trash, junk or the like, and trash, garbage and other waste must be kept in appropriate residential trash and garbage containers, which must be kept clean and sanitary. Waste is defined broadly and includes discarded household furniture, appliances, building materials, tools, toys, automotive and other mechanical parts, and household fixtures or equipment not in use. Storage of those items is restricted to inside the house or inside an enclosed accessory building such as a garage, garden shed or storage building, and exterior storage of them is specifically forbidden. The declaration does not say where the cart may sit on collection day, so ask the association. Burning household trash or garbage is separately prohibited, indoors or out.
The declaration has a fires paragraph and it never names a grill, barbecue or cooking of any kind. What it says is that no fire for vegetation, trash burning, or otherwise may be permitted to burn upon any lot, street, sidewalk or roadway, and then it adds one express permission: campfires are permitted when contained to a fire pit or campfire enclosure on an owner's lot. So the document bans open and uncontained burning on a lot while expressly allowing a contained fire there. A charcoal or gas grill sits in between: it is a contained fire, like the campfire the document permits, but the document does not say so either way. One related clause is worth knowing if you are planning a large propane installation rather than a portable tank: no oil, fuel or other noxious or flammable chemical storage tanks may be installed above ground, underground, or concealed within the house, basement or attached garage.
A clothesline of the usual kind is out. The declaration says no permanent structure for hanging laundry, rugs or other items outside the house is permitted, and nothing in the document offers an approval route or a screened location as an alternative. What the ban reaches, as written, is a permanent structure, so posts set in the ground or a line mounted to the house are caught. The document says nothing about a portable drying rack or a retractable line taken down after use, in either direction, so that narrower question is unaddressed rather than 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 →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.