What the recorded documents actually say about Winding River Estates in Middlebury — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
14 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
WHAT THIS PAGE RESTS ON. One recorded instrument: the Revised and Restated Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of Winding River Estates, recorded in Elkhart County on August 26, 2020 as instrument 2020-19272. It runs to forty-four numbered paragraphs across seventeen pages, followed by the legal descriptions and plats, and it was read from beginning to end. Two pages were re-read by eye off the scanned page images because the software that converts the scan to text had lost a line in the fencing rule and a line in the temporary-structures rule; both are quoted below from the page image.
WHAT IT COVERS. Its own opening says it is for Winding River Estates Phase One, Phase Two, Phase Three and Phase Four, which together are lots 1 through 71, and it brings in any further lots the developer plats in Winding River Estates. It replaces the 2019 Amended and Restated declaration, which in turn had replaced the original 2009 declaration; both of those are superseded and neither was used.
THIS IS A DETAILED COVENANT. It is one of the more specific documents in this directory, with numbers attached to fence height, vehicle counts, pet counts, garage size and overnight parking. Where it gives a number, the answer below gives the same number. Where it leaves something to the architectural control committee, no written standard exists in the document and the committee's own practice is the answer.
WHAT IT DOES NOT SETTLE. The association's bylaws and articles are referred to but are not on file here, and the dues are set by budget rather than fixed in the covenants. Anything recorded after August 2020 would not appear here. The recorded copy is a scan of paper rather than digital text, so individual words can be misread in conversion, which is why each answer carries the document's own wording.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU RELY ON IT. Have your title company or the Elkhart County Recorder confirm what is recorded against the specific lot and pull any later amendment, and ask the association for its current assessment, its bylaws and the committee's current standards.
Fences are allowed and the rules are unusually specific. Height may not exceed five feet. Fences have to be built of weather resistant materials, and the declaration names plastic, vinyl and vinyl coated chain link or similar compositions that do not need painting or regular upkeep; a privacy fence built of wood is not permitted. All fencing goes behind the rear building line, so it is a back yard fence and nothing in front of the back wall of the house, except that a decorative fence may sit forward of that line. Fencing has to be kept out of utility easements, has to be professionally installed by a firm in the fencing business, and has to be placed so the owner can still maintain the yard and landscaping behind it. Upkeep, including how it looks, stays with the owner. Any deviation from these criteria needs a written request and the committee's written approval. Invisible fences are separately permitted, entirely at the owner's risk and expense.
A shed is possible, but only as part of the house plans and built to match the house. The declaration first prohibits any tool shed, storage shed or other outbuilding of any type, along with trailers, mobile homes, tents, shacks, barns and detached garages, other than a construction trailer while the house is being built. It then carves out one exception: a separate free-standing storage unit may be built if the committee approves it as part of the approval of the initial plans for the house, or of a later amendment to them; if its siding, roof, exterior doors, windows and lighting are the same type, color, style, quality and finish as the house; and if it does not block the expected sight lines and views from neighbouring houses. The declaration's expectation otherwise is that lawnmowers, lawn and sporting equipment and surplus furniture are stored in the garage or basement.
The permitted place is an enclosed building, with a short loading window outside it. Boats and boat trailers, towable recreational vehicles, motorhomes, travel trailers, pickup campers and coaches, motorized dwellings, tent trailers, carriers or boxes for recreational equipment, snowmobiles and dune buggies may not be parked or stored on a lot except inside an enclosed building - except that they may sit on a paved area of the homesite for up to twenty-four hours while being loaded and unloaded. None of that equipment may be used for living, sleeping or housekeeping while it is parked anywhere in the neighborhood. Nothing in the declaration offers an approval route for keeping one outside longer.
An in-ground pool is allowed with approval; an above ground pool is not. The declaration defines an above ground pool as any pool that uses or needs a filtering system, and prohibits those along with tennis courts. An in-ground swimming pool may be built only after prior written approval from the architectural control committee, and that approval covers the design, appearance and location of the pool and, as a condition, the design, location and construction method of a pool fence to segregate it. The pool fence must also meet the general fencing rules as a minimum, and the committee is told to treat privacy and security as goals of any pool plan. Pool pumps and filter systems have to sit behind the rear line of the house and out of sight from the road, and a bath house for an approved pool is contemplated as part of the storage rules.
Nothing outside changes without approval first. No dwelling, structure or improvement may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a homesite, and the grade or drainage may not be altered, until the builder, the construction plans and the landscaping plans have been approved by the architectural control committee. Plans have to show floor plan, exterior type and finish, materials, outside colors, how the design sits with existing houses, and location against lot lines. Two complete sets go in, one is kept and one comes back, and approval or refusal is in writing; the committee aims to answer within a reasonable time but says a minimum of thirty days will normally be needed. Nothing may be built that does not comply fully with the approved plans, and no deviation is allowed without prior written consent. Awnings need committee approval. Air conditioning compressors, window air conditioners, satellite dishes, pool equipment and playground equipment all have to be behind the rear line of the house and out of sight from the road. Every lot has to have an exterior pole light, photo-electrically controlled, dusk to dawn, in a location the committee sets.
A small dish is expressly allowed with placement conditions; poles and visible antennas are not. All utility service, including cable television, runs underground and must not be visible. A satellite dish is permitted if it does not exceed eighteen inches, and it has to sit in the perimeter landscaped part of the homesite with at least three complementary shrubs or bushes next to it, in the rear yard if possible. If the direction the dish needs is not available from the perimeter landscaping, a clump-like landscaped area has to be created with an artificial rock or another committee-approved cover, and if the rear yard will not work the owner has to work with the committee on an appropriate cover. The dish may never go on a roof or any other part of the house, porch, breezeway or garage where it would be visible from the street or from a neighbouring homesite, and a separate paragraph requires satellite dishes to sit behind the rear line of the house. No utility pole may be erected on a lot for any purpose, including an antenna pole. Federal rules on antenna installation can also bear on how a clause like this is enforced, which is a question for a lawyer rather than for this page.
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 approved up front and required to be kept up. Lawn and landscaping plans go to the committee in two sets, showing the location, type, size and variety of trees, shrubs and plants, and have to be approved in writing before construction starts; once approved, the owner maintains the lawn and landscaping consistently with them. Every lot has to have a landscaped and seeded or sodded yard within four months of the house being finished, and every lot, vacant or not, has to be mowed, trimmed and free of debris at all times. Trees already on a homesite have to stay and be maintained by the owner, and replaced by the owner if they die or are damaged, because the declaration treats them as screening for neighbours as well. Every lot has to have a below-ground lawn irrigation system, serviced at least once a year; above ground irrigation devices are not permitted unless they recess when not in use. Nothing may be graded, planted, sodded or surfaced between the front lot line and the edge of the street in a way that impedes storm drainage, and an owner who alters the drainage is personally liable for the damage.
Mailboxes are standardised. Every dwelling has to have one, kept in good working order and maintained to look presentable at all times by the owner, and the architectural control committee sets a uniform style for them, the stated reason being the consistent appearance the declaration is after. Newspaper boxes are expressly prohibited.
Pets are allowed with a number limit and a curfew. No animals, livestock or poultry may be raised, bred or kept on a homesite except that dogs, cats or other household pets may be kept, provided they are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose and are not allowed to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard. Each owner may keep no more than two dogs or cats, and there may be no more than two per homesite. A pet is permitted only when it is confined to the owner's homesite or on a leash off it, and pets may not be left outside the house after eight in the evening. The owner has to clean up waste immediately, on their own homesite and also in the common areas and on the streets.
Renting is allowed, with a limit on the term. No lease of a dwelling may be entered into for more than one year without the prior approval of the association. The owner stays responsible for all assessments whatever the lease says, and the tenant is jointly and severally liable for assessments falling due during the tenancy. Nothing in the declaration caps how many homes may be rented or requires the association to vet a tenant.
A basketball goal is expressly permitted, in one place. It has to be on the driveway of the homesite and positioned so that anyone using it stays on the lot - nobody playing may use any part of a public street, and a goal may not be put in the public right of way. Goals and backboards are not permitted on the house or the garage, and no pole may be erected on a lot as a basketball goal post. Trampolines, permanent or temporary, are not permitted at all. Swing sets, sandboxes and similar equipment have to be at least ten feet from any rear or side property line and no closer to the street than the rear building line, must be kept in good repair, and may not be allowed to become a visual annoyance to neighbours.
One sign is allowed and the size is capped. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a homesite except a single sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent, or a sign of reasonable size used by a builder or architect during construction and sales. The home occupation rule separately requires that no sign or display indicate from outside that the house is used for anything other than a dwelling. The declarant kept the right to put up whatever signs it wants to promote and sell lots, regardless of these standards.
Parking is one of the most detailed parts of this declaration. Vehicles must be parked on paved surfaces at all times, and none may block a driveway or a public street. No more than four vehicles of any type may be regularly parked at a house, and that count includes the garage and nearby street parking; family gatherings, social events and other short meetings are excepted, so long as they do not involve overnight stays or overnight parking. Overnight on-street parking is expressly prohibited, and the declaration defines overnight as continuous parking on a public street from midnight through to five in the morning. Vehicles and trailers without current plates, and inoperative ones, may only be kept in completely enclosed buildings. Commercial trucks, semi tractors and trailers, toters, step vans, box trucks and any truck over one ton may not be parked on a lot or in the right of way in front of one except to load, unload or deliver, and overnight parking of a commercial vehicle over one ton is forbidden anywhere in the neighborhood. Every house must have a full size attached garage for two to three cars, between four hundred seventy-five and eight hundred square feet.
A home occupation is allowed and the declaration defines it tightly. The use has to be conducted entirely inside the house and carried on only by a member of the immediate family living there, and it has to be clearly incidental and secondary to using the house as a home without changing its character. Four conditions come with it: no sign or display showing from outside that the building is used for anything but a dwelling, nothing sold on the homesite, nobody employed except an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical or electrical equipment used. The declaration then names uses that can never count as a home occupation - a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, animal hospital and animal care or treatment such as dog trimming. The parking rules bear on this too, since a commercial truck over one ton may not be kept at the house.
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 declaration never uses the word repair, but two clauses reach a car that is not running and a driveway full of parts. No vehicle or trailer without current plates, whether it runs or not, and no inoperative vehicle or trailer, may be parked or stored on a lot other than inside a completely enclosed building. And the trash paragraph treats automotive and other mechanical parts not in use as waste, restricts storing them to inside the house or an enclosed accessory building such as a garage, and specifically forbids exterior storage of them. So the permitted place for a project car and its parts is inside a closed building. What the document does not say anything about is working on a running, licensed car in your own driveway on a weekend.
Trash has to be contained and kept out of sight. No homesite may be used as a dumping ground for rubbish, and trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers, with the equipment for storing or disposing of it kept clean and sanitary and located either inside the house or garage or somewhere not visible from public roadways. No accumulation of lumber, scrap metal, old automobiles or junk is allowed in the subdivision. The declaration defines waste broadly - discarded household furniture, appliances, building materials, tools, toys, automotive and other mechanical parts and household fixtures not in use - and says storage of those is restricted to the house or an enclosed accessory building such as a garage, garden shed or storage building, with exterior storage specifically forbidden.
The declaration has a burning paragraph and it is aimed squarely at rubbish, not at cooking. It says no burning, indoors or out, of household trash or garbage is permitted on a homesite, whether or not an incinerator is used. It never mentions a grill, a barbecue or a fire pit in either direction, so a contained cooking grill is not what that sentence reaches on the face of its wording. A general nuisance clause also applies to anything done on a homesite that becomes an annoyance in the neighborhood.
Clotheslines are named and barred. No permanent or temporary clothesline or clothes drying device may be placed on a homesite, and separately, no regular or repeated hanging of laundry, rugs or other items outside the house is permitted. The wording reaches repeated outdoor drying whether or not a line is involved. It says nothing about drying inside a garage or on an enclosed porch.
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.