What the recorded documents actually say about Woodside Estates North in Elkhart — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
15 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. Every answer here comes from one recorded instrument: the Amended and Restated Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements for Woodside Estates, recorded in Elkhart County in September 2005 as instrument 2005-29132. It is ten pages and thirty-one numbered paragraphs, and it was read from beginning to end.
WHAT IT COVERS. The document lists the plats it governs in its opening recitals: Woodside Estates Section 2, Woodside Estates Section 2 Part 2, and Woodside Estates North Sections 1, 2 and 3, which it then treats together as one subdivision called Woodside Estates. Woodside Estates North is inside that list, so these answers are for this neighborhood. The document also says it supersedes all prior restrictions and covenants placed on the subdivision, which retires the separate 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 covenants recorded for the individual plats.
WHAT IT DOES NOT SETTLE. The association is allowed to adopt its own by-laws and written rules, and those are a separate set of papers that are not on file here and are not reflected on this page. The dues ceiling in the covenants is tied to inflation, so the amount charged today is not the fifty-five dollar figure the document prints. Anything recorded after 2005 would not appear here either. The recorded copy on file is a scan of paper rather than digital text, so individual words can be misread in conversion, which is why each answer below carries the document's own wording.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU RELY ON IT. Pull the current recorded covenants and any later amendment from the Elkhart County Recorder, or have your title company do it, and ask the association directly for its current dues, its by-laws and its written rules.
Fences are allowed with limits and with written approval first. A perimeter fence may be no higher than six feet and may not extend closer to the street than the back building setback line. Every fence must be approved in writing by the architectural control committee before it goes up, and any fence, whatever its height, has to be kept up - missing or rotting pieces replaced, and new pieces painted or stained to match the fence already there. The document also grandfathers the older ones: fences built before the association took control in January 2002 are not treated as violations. Separately, a screen fence is one of the few things allowed to stand in the protective screening strips shown on the plat, and no screen planting over thirty-six inches is allowed between the front building setback line and the front lot line.
A detached shed or pet shelter is contemplated and allowed, but it goes to the committee first. The covenants say any detached storage or pet shelter structure used for lawn tools, toys, pool equipment or other personal property must be of quality construction, kept looking attractive and neat, blend with the house already built, and be submitted to the architectural control committee for approval before construction starts. The committee can require protective screening around it. No size or material standard is written down, so the committee's judgment is the standard. A separate paragraph bars any outbuilding, shack, barn or temporary structure from being used as a residence.
Boats, motor homes, trailers and other recreational vehicles may be kept on a lot, but not out front. The covenants say storage of them may not be at a location nearer the front lot line than the minimum building setback line shown on the recorded plat - so behind that line is the permitted place, and in front of it is not. Nothing of any type, movable or not, may be parked on a street in the subdivision for more than seven days in a row. A separate paragraph also bars a recreational vehicle or camper from being lived in on a lot, temporarily or permanently. The document does not mention a garage in the recreational-vehicle paragraph and sets no screening requirement.
A pool is allowed only after written approval. The covenants group pools with tennis courts and say neither may be erected, built or installed on any lot until the plans and specifications for it have been approved in writing by the architectural control committee or its designated representative. No depth, siting, fencing or equipment standard is written into the document, so what the committee will accept is not something the recorded text answers.
Exterior work needs written approval before it starts. No building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a lot, and the natural grade or drainage of a lot may not be altered, until the construction plans have been approved by the architectural control committee. The plans have to show floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, how the external design sits with the houses already there, and location against lot lines, topography and finish grade elevations. Two complete sets go in; one stays with the committee and one comes back. Approval or disapproval is given in writing, and no deviation from approved plans is allowed without further written consent. The committee is three people appointed by the association, and the document describes its decision as entirely within its discretion.
The covenants restrict dishes by size rather than banning them outright. The antenna paragraph bars exposed or exterior radio and television transmitting or receiving antennas, and bars dishes over twenty-two inches across, from being erected, placed or kept on any lot. On the face of that wording a dish twenty-two inches or smaller is not caught by the size limit, while a larger dish and a conventional antenna are. The paragraph adds that waiving the restriction for one lot does not waive it for another. 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. The scan of this paragraph is damaged in places, so the wording below is reproduced as the conversion produced it.
Solar panels are named in their own paragraph and are allowed subject to approval. Both the installation and the location must be approved in writing by the architectural control committee before construction. The document sets no standard for what the committee should weigh. Indiana has since enacted law limiting how far an association may restrict solar devices, so how this clause applies today is worth asking a lawyer or the association about.
Landscaping is regulated in three places. Every lot has to have its side, front and rear yards planted with grass seed, sod or ground cover within one hundred twenty days of the house being finished or occupied, whichever comes first, unless the committee approves otherwise. In the protective screening strips marked as non-access easements on the plat, plantings have to be kept up by the lot owner at their own expense to form an effective screen, and no screen planting over thirty-six inches is allowed between the front building setback line and the front lot line. At corners and driveways, no fence, wall, hedge or shrub that blocks sight lines between two and six feet above the road may stay within twenty-five feet of the intersecting street lines, and a tree there has to be trimmed up high enough not to block the view. Changing the grading of a drainage swale so it alters storm runoff is also barred.
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 →Household pets are allowed within limits. Dogs, cats and pet birds may be kept in reasonable numbers for the pleasure of the occupants; other animals, birds and fowl may not. No animal may be kept or bred for a commercial purpose, and all animals have to be cared for and restrained so they are not offensive through noise, odor or unsanitary conditions. A dog may not run at large unless it is inside a permitted dog run or fenced yard, or is with an attendant holding it firmly by collar and a leash no more than eight feet long. A cat owner may not let a cat run at large or into another lot's yard. No savage or dangerous animal is allowed. A dog that barks so it can be heard frequently or continuously may not be kept on a lot. Pets must be walked only where the association designates, not curbed near buildings, walkways, shrubbery or other public space, and the owner has to pick up the waste. The association may remove an animal it decides is in violation, may require pets to be registered, and may adopt further rules about animals.
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 is allowed and the size is capped. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot except a single sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent. A builder's sign of any size is allowed during construction and the sales period, and the document says homeowners meeting signs and temporary garage sale signs are approved by the committee. The developer kept the right to put up whatever signs it wanted to promote and sell lots.
Parking is restricted in two specific ways rather than generally. Nothing of any type or nature, movable or immovable - vehicles, boats or structures - may be parked on a street in the subdivision for more than seven consecutive days. And no vehicle on blocks or without a current license plate may be stored outside an enclosed garage on any lot at any time, which leaves inside a garage as the permitted place for one. Recreational vehicles and boats have their own rule about staying behind the front building setback line. Beyond that, the document does not cap how many vehicles may sit on a driveway or require them to be in the garage. Every house has to have a full size attached garage holding at least two cars and no more than three.
A home occupation is allowed, and the covenants define 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. Four conditions come with it: no sign or display showing from outside that the building is used for anything but a residence, nothing sold on the premises, nobody employed except an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical or electrical equipment used. The document then names uses that can never count as a home occupation - a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-teller parlor, animal hospital, or any form of animal care or treatment such as dog trimming.
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 covenants never use the words repair, service or dismantle, but they do reach a car that is mid-repair. No vehicle on blocks, and no vehicle without a current license plate, may be stored outside an enclosed garage on any lot at any time. That names a permitted place: inside a closed garage. What the document does not do is say anything about working on a running, licensed car in your own driveway, so that question is not answered by the recorded text.
Trash has to be contained. No lot may be used or kept as a dumping ground for rubbish, and trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers. Any incinerator or other equipment for storing or disposing of that material has to be kept clean and sanitary. The document does not say where a container may sit on collection day or how soon it has to come back in. The association is separately given power to enforce the rules about accumulations of rubbish, weeds and trash.
The covenants never mention a grill, a barbecue or cooking, either to allow it or to forbid it. What they have is a one-line fires paragraph, and it reaches only streets and roadways: no fire may burn on any street or roadway in the subdivision. On the face of that wording a contained grill on your own lot is not what the paragraph is aimed at. A nuisance clause also bars anything done on a lot that becomes an annoyance or nuisance in the neighborhood, which is the kind of language a smoke complaint tends to be argued under.
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.