Pool owners beware - are you selling or leasing?

Pool owners, by now you should have registered your pool on the NSW Swimming Pools Register.  If you have not, you should do so immediately (or risk incurring a fine of $220.00).  If you have, make sure that you keep the Certificate of Registration which you received when you registered the pool as your solicitor/selling agent may require that certificate when selling or leasing the property.

On 29 April 2015, the next stage of the new swimming pools laws will take effect.  From that date, the pool must be registered and a Certificate of Compliance must be attached to any contract for sale of land (or alternatively, an Occupation Certificate which is less than 3 years old together with the Certificate of Registration).

Failure to attach the required certificate to the contract for sale of land gives the purchaser a right to get out of the contract within 14 days of exchange.  Advertising the property for sale without the required certificate is also an offence which may incur a fine.

For residential leases, failure to provide the tenant with a copy of a valid Certificate of Compliance/Occupation Certificate will mean the landowner is in breach of the lease.

In order to obtain a Certificate of Compliance, you will need to arrange an inspection of your pool by a Council or private certifier.  A Certificate of Compliance is valid for 3 years after the date of issue.

Where you are planning to sell or lease your property in the near future we suggest that you arrange an inspection of your pool immediately.  The Certificate of Compliance can take up to 4 months to obtain as it is estimated up to 95% of pools do not comply with the relevant standards and will require some form of rectification works before a certifier can issue the Certificate of Compliance.

Residential unit blocks also need to have a valid Certificate of Compliance.  The Owners Corporation or strata manager should obtain and hold a Certificate of Compliance on behalf of all unit owners and make it available when required.  Whether you are selling or leasing, you should contact the Owners Corporation and ensure that they have made arrangements to obtain a Certificate of Compliance so that you may use it in the sale/lease of your lot.

You can find our previous bulletin, which describes the new laws in more detail, at this link I thought cleaning the pool was hard work – new chores for pool owners.

Author: Kristie Carlile

Contributing partner: Melissa Potter