If you own or manage any property with a swimming pool, you now have various obligations under the new Queensland Pool Safety laws and it’s important that you understand them. The initial grace periods are now over, and if you’re found to be non-compliant, you risky hefty penalties, so the time to do this is now!
Most individuals — home owners and landlords — will fall under the Non-Shared Pool category, which is covered on this page. If you are an Accommodation Provider, Body Corporate manager or Real Estate Manager, you can find relevant information using the links to the right.
Specific information for non-shared pools
The Queensland Government made it necessary, from 1st December 2010, for Pool Safety Certificates to exist where a property is bought or sold, or is leased to tenants, to confirm that the pool fence complies with the new Pool Safety Standard.
If you are selling your house or unit, a Pool Safety Certificate is now required at the time of Settlement. We recommend that you book an inspection as soon as a Contract of Sale is signed, to avoid any delays or disruptions to the sales process.
If you are buying a house or unit, you can choose to accept the responsibility for getting the Certificate, and extend the time period for getting it to 90 days past settlement. However, you will be agreeing to purchase the property without knowing what repairs or upgrades are required to make the pool fence compliant.
It’s a real risk that could be quite costly, so you really should be asking yourself ‘why’ the vendor didn’t arranger this already?
Even if the pool fence does turn out to be compliant, Local Councils are already issuing fines to those who “forget” to get their certificates after 90 days so you can still be out of pocket.
Freshwater Pool Safety Inspections offer a “Pre-Purchase Inspection Service” where we’ll provide a detailed report of the pool fence compliance, before you agree to purchase the property.
If you’re a a landlord, you risk fines if you sign a lease with a new or existing tenant, without having a Pool Safety Certificate. Likewise, for new tenants you will need the Certificate before the tenant can sign a lease and move into the house or unit. An existing tenant cannot sign a lease renewal without you first having a Pool Safety Certificate.
If you’re a home owner, you do not require a Pool Safety Certificate, but you are still bound to ensure your pool safety barrier is 100% compliant with the legislation. There are hefty fine for non-compliance, and it’s only a matter of time until local councils decide to start random inspections.
You can attempt ‘do it yourself’ using our downloadable checklist, but please be warned the legislation can be quite complicated to the layman, and we can take no responsibility if you make a mistake or misunderstand the information provided.
For total peace of mind, we recommend you book a professional pool fence inspection by one of our licensed pool inspectors or call us on 0474 490 534 to discuss your specific requirements or concerns.
A pool safety inspection will help you understand how to rectify any issues with fences, gates and barriers and minimize the risk of drowning and injuries that occur from immersion.
What you need to know about Qld Pool Fence Regulations
Stage 1 of Queensland’s new pool safety laws was introduced on 1 December 2009 and applied to new residential pools. Stage 2, began on 1 December 2010 and mostly affected existing swimming pools.
There is now one pool safety standard, the Queensland Development Code Mandatory Part 3.4 (PDF, 1.3MB), that replaces 11 different pool safety standards.
Please click on this link to view Queensland Government’s pool safety laws. Below is one of many images from the Development Code and shows some of the basic laws. Every pool is different however, hence the fact that there are well in excess of 30 images or consideration in the document, not too mention the additional reading!
Trust the experts and achieve peace of mind – call Freshwater Pool Safety Inspections today or click here to request a call back
If you are planning to sell, lease, rent or purchase a residence and it has a pool, you must have a complying pool safety certificate. For this, you need to comply with current QLD government swimming pool fencing regulations.
We are committed to helping you attain certification to ensure your most valuable assets are SAFE. We provide licensed pool safety inspections to help you get a good nights sleep knowing when you are not at home minors have little or no chance of entering the pool area.
Complying with pool fence laws can be challenging. The laws are in place to minimise the risk of drowning and possible injuries that occur from immersion in a swimming pool. As a pool owner or potential pool owner, you must maintain your pool fence and abide by the pool fence inspection and safety standards.
Freshwater Pool Safety Inspections (FPSI) will inspect your pool and either issue you with either (1) a pool safety certification or (2) a non-compliance notice.
If your pool passes the first inspection a (1) pool safety certification will be issued within 2 days.
If you have (2) any non-compliant areas you will be issued with a report within 2 x days of the first inspection that will explain in detail with photos what needs to be repaired, replaced or adjusted and bought up to an acceptable standard within 90 days after the initial inspection to attain a successful re-inspection.
Post your first pool inspection you should understand how to rectify and maintain your pool fence, gates and barriers making any further inspections minimize maintenance issues and costs for you as the owner or manager.
FPSI are offering this service at a competitive commercial price. We at FPSI have a PASSION for SAFETY and want all our customers to comply to existing QLD pool safety initiatives as the new laws are showing that statistically immersion incident numbers are on a welcome downward trend in QLD.