What to do if your pool doesn’t comply with Queensland law?

Let’s say you wish to buy or lease a new home with your dream swimming pool but you aren’t sure if it’s safe for your family and friends. This is where a pool safety certificate comes in. The purpose of having laws for a compliant pool is to provide safety for young children from being injured or drowning in regulated pools. If you are a pool owner found to have a that has no pool compliance, you may risk getting fined from your local government unit.

But how do you ensure your swimming pool complies with Queensland law? Then here are some tips to help you avoid the stress that comes with obtaining a safety compliance certificate:

We highly suggest you get in touch with a licensed pool contractor for proper advice on how to make your swimming pool compliant, and our team of professionals at Cityscapes Pools and Landscapes are more than ready to accommodate you.

After doing so, you can reach out to a licensed safety inspector, who will do a formal inspection of your pool to tell you if you will be receiving a certificate or not. If you fail and it turns out your pool doesn’t comply, you will receive a nonconformity notice. If you fail to request a re-inspection within three months since you failed, then the pool safety inspector has the right to give a copy of the notice to your local government.

While you can still sell a property without a pool safety certificate, there are some responsibilities you would have to follow. The first thing to do is to obtain and complete the Form 36. This is a notice that says there is no pool safety certificate. The next step once you’ve finally sold your property is to provide a copy to the buyer and the QBCC.

If you are leasing your property, then it is a must that you have a certificate before you can lease.

If you own a property that comes with a shared pool, then you will also have to provide a copy of the form to the owner of the pool, whether it’s a corporate body or not. And if you are the shared pool owner, then you hold the responsibility of ensuring that the barrier, windows, doors, etc are all compliant with the pool safety standards of the local government at all times, even after providing/receiving the Form 36. If you fail to do this, you risk receiving a penalty.

Once a buyer purchases your property, it is then their responsibility to obtain a certificate of pool safety compliance within the 90 days after settlement or risk receiving a fine.

While dealing with all these fines and penalties can be stressful, abiding by your local government’s swimming pool laws will ensure a safe pool for everyone.