Deed restrictions, also called restrictive covenants, are private, recorded rules that limit what you can build or do with a home and bind every future owner. In Bethesda and Montgomery County they range from century-old neighborhood covenants to detailed HOA CC&Rs. Review the recorded documents and any HOA or condo resale package during your contingency period, before you're locked in. Maryland voids certain covenants outright, including restrictions on solar, EV charging, and unlawful race-based limits.
Quick Answer
Deed restrictions, also called restrictive covenants, are private, recorded rules that limit what you can build or do with a home and bind every future owner. In Bethesda and Montgomery County they range from century-old neighborhood covenants to detailed HOA CC&Rs. Review the recorded documents and any HOA or condo resale package during your contingency period, before you're locked in. Maryland voids certain covenants outright, including restrictions on solar, EV charging, and unlawful race-based limits.
When you buy a home in Bethesda, you're not just buying the house and the lot. You're buying every rule recorded against that land — and some of those rules outlast every owner who came before you. Deed restrictions, also called restrictive covenants, are private conditions written into a property's chain of title that limit what you can build, change, or do with your home long after you get the keys.
Most buyers never think about them until a plan gets blocked: the fence they wanted, the addition they sketched, the home business they assumed was fine. In a market like Montgomery County — where neighborhoods range from 1920s covenant-bound enclaves to brand-new HOA communities — knowing what's recorded against a home is a core part of due diligence, not a footnote.
What Deed Restrictions Actually Are
A deed restriction is a legally binding limitation on how a property can be used. Because it "runs with the land," it binds you and every future owner, not just the person who first agreed to it. To be enforceable in Maryland, the restriction generally has to be recorded in the county land records — a promise that isn't recorded usually can't bind a later buyer who had no notice of it.
Restrictive covenants typically control things like:
- Architectural details — rooflines, siding and building materials, paint colors, and additions
- Fences, sheds, decks, and outbuildings
- Setbacks and where you can build on the lot
- Home-based businesses, short-term rentals, and signage
- Parking, RVs, boats, and commercial vehicles
- Subdividing the lot or tearing down and rebuilding
Deed restrictions are private rules, which makes them different from two things buyers often confuse them with. Zoning is a government limit set by Montgomery County on how land can be used; a deed restriction is a private agreement recorded by a developer, association, or prior owner, and it can be stricter than zoning allows. It's also different from an easement, which grants someone the right to use part of your land rather than restricting what you do with it.
In HOA and condo communities, these restrictions live in the recorded declaration and the CC&Rs (covenants, conditions, and restrictions), and the association enforces them — through violation notices, fines, and, in some cases, a lien on your home. In older neighborhoods without an active HOA, the covenants may still be on the books and enforceable by neighbors, even if no one has policed them in years.
Where Deed Restrictions Show Up Around Bethesda
You'll run into restrictive covenants across the full range of Montgomery County housing.
Established neighborhoods like Chevy Chase, Somerset, Kenwood, and Edgemoor carry covenants that date back to the early 20th century — some governing lot use and building lines that are still enforced today. Carderock Springs, one of Bethesda's mid-century modern enclaves, has recorded covenants and an Architectural Review Committee that must sign off on exterior changes; those rules are a big part of why the neighborhood has kept its original character while other areas saw teardowns.
Newer construction in Potomac, North Bethesda, and North Potomac more often comes with a formal HOA and a thick book of CC&Rs covering everything from approved plant lists to how long trash cans can sit at the curb. New-construction buyers sometimes assume a fresh build means fewer rules — it's often the opposite. Some communities are also age-restricted or cap rentals, which is worth catching early because the HOA's budget and any pending special assessments ride alongside those covenants in the same document package.
The practical takeaway: don't assume anything from a neighborhood's age or vibe. A quiet street with no HOA sign can still have century-old covenants recorded against it, and even a home in a Montgomery County historic district layers government preservation rules on top of whatever private covenants already exist.
How to Find and Read Them Before You Close
Here's the sequence I walk buyers through so restrictions never become a closing-week surprise.
- Pull the recorded documents. Covenants are recorded with the Circuit Court for Montgomery County and searchable through Maryland Land Records at mdlandrec.net. Your title company will also flag recorded restrictions in the title commitment, and a current property survey can show whether existing structures already violate a setback or building line.
- Get the full HOA or condo package. If there's an association, Maryland law entitles you to the governing documents. For condos and many HOAs, you receive a resale package with the declaration, bylaws, rules, and budget — plus a limited window to review it and cancel if something's a dealbreaker.
- Read for your actual plans. The addition, the fence, the ADU, the home office, the short-term rental — check each one against the documents before you're contractually committed, not after.
- Ask about the approval process. Many communities require architectural committee approval before you change anything visible from the street. Find out what that process looks like and how long it takes.
If the language is dense or ambiguous — and covenant language often is — this is a good moment to loop in a Maryland real estate attorney who can tell you whether a restriction is a real constraint or a dead letter.
When a Covenant Can't Be Enforced
Not every restriction on paper holds up. Maryland law limits what covenants can do, and a few categories are void outright.
Architectural approval isn't unlimited. Under Maryland case law, an association or committee can't reject your plans on a whim — a refusal has to relate to the general plan of development and be a reasonable decision made in good faith, not one that's "high-handed, whimsical, or captious."
Several restrictions are unenforceable by statute. In Maryland, a covenant that prohibits or unreasonably restricts a solar collector system is void — "unreasonable" meaning it raises installation cost by 5% or more or cuts energy output by 10% or more. The same protection applies to electric-vehicle charging equipment in your own deeded parking space, and, as of October 1, 2025, to restrictions that would bar a licensed family child care home.
And any covenant that tries to restrict ownership or occupancy based on race, religion, or national origin has been legally void for decades under the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Shelley v. Kraemer. If you find that kind of language buried in an older deed — and in some long-established Montgomery County neighborhoods, you might — Maryland offers a formal fix. Under Maryland Real Property §3-112, a homeowner can record a Restrictive Covenant Modification to strike the unlawful language, and the recording fee for that correction is waived.
If you and a community end up in a genuine dispute over enforcement, Montgomery County's Office of Common Ownership Communities runs a dispute-resolution program for HOA, condo, and co-op conflicts before anyone heads to court.
What This Means for Your Offer
Deed restrictions rarely kill a deal, but they should shape it. If a covenant blocks something central to why you want the house, that's worth knowing while you still have contingencies to lean on. If it's a minor rule you can live with, you move forward with clear eyes.
A few restrictions can also affect resale. Age caps, tight rental limits, or unusually strict architectural rules narrow the pool of future buyers — not a reason to walk, but a factor to weigh, especially at Bethesda price points where buyers expect flexibility.
The mistake I see is treating the HOA and title documents as paperwork to skim and initial. Read them for your real plans. The best time to discover that additions are capped or short-term rentals are banned is during your review window — not the day your contractor pulls up.
Every property's restrictions are different, and the only way to know what you're bound by is to read what's actually recorded against that specific home. If you're weighing a house and want help sorting which restrictions matter and which are noise, I'm happy to walk through the documents with you before you write the offer.