Property Use Restrictions

As members of the Pleasant Brook Association and beneficiaries of the trust, we are obliged to comply with certain restrictions designed to prevent the neighborhood from changing its character in ways that would frustrate the trusts's purpose, which (according to the Declaration) is to ensure that "the Pleasant-Brook Area may become and remain a pleasant and attractive place in which the beneficiaries will be happy to dwell."

These restrictions concern what we can build on our property and how we can landscape it. They include some "Thou shalt nots" and some "Thou shalt seek approvals." The Declaration of Trust and the By-Laws make it clear that adjudicating these issues is the job of the elected trustees (or in special cases, the voting beneficiaries), but neither document says what the restrictions are. This matter is handled in two other documents:

• Deed Restrictions: The South Middlesex Registry of Deeds in Cambridge holds many copies of a list of general restrictions that apply to all properties in the Pleasant Brook Area. If you are one of the original owners, the list of restrictions may be incorporated in the language of your deed. Otherwise — and this is almost certain to be true if your house has changed hands since it was built — the restrictions are listed in a separate document filed in the Registry and mentioned in your deed in a sentence something like this: "The above described land is subject to restrictions more particularly set forth in Deed Document No. XXXXXX." Casual research suggests that a separate, uniquely numbered copy of this document exists for each property and is referenced in one deed after another as the property changes hands. The contents of the list, however, are the same in all copies.
• PBA Restrictions: In a document dated April 8, 1970, when the neighborhood was still in its babyhood, the Pleasant Brook Association approved and published a document with the title Architectural Restrictions. It fills in a number of details — first, building on the Declaration of Trust and the By-Laws, it describes the legal basis of the restrictions and the process by which beneficiaries should seek approval for a change and the PBA should act in response. Then it lists, in somewhat more detail than the deed restriction document, the kinds of architectural and landscaping changes that require PBA approval. A recent communication to all of us from the trustees aptly describes this as a "fleshing-out" of the deed restriction list. It doesn't cover every topic on that list, but its intent is to supplement, not supersede it. Given the PBA's legal standing, this document has authority equal to the deed restriction document.

Here are links to the texts of these documents and a convenient unified checklist of restrictions and requirements:

	Deed Restriction Document (HTML text, with summaries of a few murky parts)
	Deed Restriction Document (PDF copy of original typescript)
	Architectural Restrictions (HTML text)
	Architectural Restrictions (PDF copy of original typescript)
	Checklist of Restrictions (combining the two lists above)

HTML text is big and easy to read on the screen; PDF copies are harder to read but easier to print. Because a few parts of the Deed Restriction Document are written in dense legalese, a plain-language summary and interpretive commentary is provided for these parts. To see the summary and comments for a paragraph, click the Summary button at the end of the paragraph. (Only the introduction and paragraphs 3, 6, and 7 have Summary buttons.)

Important Notice: Please be aware that neither the summary nor the comments (which are labeled "Comment:" and written in green italics) have any legal force. Legally speaking, the original document is all that counts. Comments and interpretations represent the author's opinion only.

This page last updated 8/24/2005