On 1 December 2019, new laws to improve swimming pool and spa safety came into effect in Victoria.
Owners are required to have their safety barriers inspected and to lodge a certificate of barrier compliance with their council. If a safety barrier is not compliant, it is the owner’s responsibility to make the barrier compliant.
Pools and spas are the most common location of drownings for children aged five and under, and on average four children die in home pools and spas every year
Eighty per cent of swimming pool and spa barriers in Victoria aren’t meeting safety standards. The new state-wide regulations aim to make pools and spas safer for everyone, particularly children aged five and under.
Whilst lack of supervision was one of the primary causes of drownings in backyard pools, in combination with issues with the swimming pool barrier preventable deaths with an effective, compliant barrier cannot occur
To prevent access to swimming pools, barriers need to be correctly installed and regularly maintained, including fitting gates which self-close and self-latch.
The building inspector (pool safety) is a new class of building inspector. The prescribed qualifications for the building inspector (pool safety) class are the successful completion of a course approved by the VBA in swimming pool barrier inspection and at least 6 months practical experience.
Certificate of Compliance
If the inspector determines that your safety barrier complies with the applicable barrier standard, they will issue a certificate of barrier compliance. As the owner of the land with the pool or spa, you then need to lodge the certificate with your council.
You must do this within 30 days of the date of issue of the certificate. Contact your council for more information.
When the council receives the certificate, they will send you a written notice, which confirms:
- the date the certificate was lodged
- the date by which the next certificate is required to be lodged, which is four years after the previous certificate.
You will need to pay a fee to the council when you lodge the certificate.
Non-compliant barriers
If the inspector determines that your safety barrier is not compliant, they can either:
- immediately issue a certificate of barrier non-compliance; or
- issue you a written notice specifying:
- the matters which must be addressed to bring the pool barrier into compliance;
- the period in which the barrier must be made compliant (within a maximum of 60 days); and
- the date and time they intend to reinspect the barrier.
After re-inspection, if the inspector determines that the pool barrier is compliant, they will issue a certificate of barrier compliance, which you must then lodge with council.
If the barrier remains non-compliant, but the inspector is satisfied that progress has been made towards bringing the barrier into compliance, they may allow you an additional seven days to rectify the barrier. Otherwise they will issue a certificate of barrier non-compliance.
If an inspector issues a certificate of barrier non-compliance, they will lodge it with the relevant council and provide you with a copy. The council will notify you and you will have to pay a fee by the due date specified in the notice.
