Your rights and obligations

All residential pools need to be inspected every three years to ensure that the pool’s barriers comply with the Building Act 2004. These inspections can be carried out by territorial authorities or by an independently qualified pool inspector.

Advising your territorial authority

If you have a swimming pool on your property, make sure your territorial authority (eg, local Council) knows about it. Once they are aware of the pool, they'll let you know when the pool barrier is due for inspection.

Choosing an inspector

When you're advised that your pool barrier is due to be inspected, you can choose to have the inspection performed by:

  • the territorial authority (the local city or district council), or
  • an independently qualified pool inspector (pool inspector).

If you choose to use a pool inspector, you can use our public register to find one in your area. If one isn't available in your area, your local territorial authority will have to carry out the inspection.

Searching the pool inspector register

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The fees charged to inspect pool barriers will vary.

Definition of a pool

The Building (Pools) Amendment Act provides the definitions of a 'pool' and a 'residential pool'.

Building (Pools) Amendment Act 2016 — Section 5(external link)

Information about the actual construction of pool barriers is found on the Building Performance website.

Building Performance website — F9 Restricting access to residential pools(external link)