HOW IT WORKS

Four steps between your signature and your first swim.

You bought a pool, not a second job. Here is the whole of ours, in the order it happens to you.

Call us.

An hour at your place, free. We walk the job with you, ask the questions nobody has asked you yet, and tell you what we think you are in for. You owe nothing at the end of it.

Pool outline marked on the ground with measuring tape

We quote, then you buy hours.

Off what we saw at your place, not off a price list. Five hours is the minimum, $1,100 inc GST: discovery, and the whole thing written down. After that, $220 an hour inc GST in blocks you agree before they start.

You always know what’s next.

A note every Monday: what should be happening this week, who you need to ring, and what is due. And a number to call when something on site does not look right.

You swim.

Your building surveyor inspects the barrier at the final inspection and issues the certificate. You lodge it with council at the same time as you apply to register the pool, which is one application, not two. The four-year date goes in your diary before we leave.

Call us now See your deadlines

STAYING COMPLIANT

Four things council needs. Two clocks on your permit.

They are the same for every pool in Victoria, and they come from two different places. Four things council needs from you, starting with the certificate your building surveyor issues and ending with a fresh one every four years. Two clocks belong to the building permit instead: work has to start within 12 months of the permit being issued, and a pool on its own has to be finished within six months of starting.

Put your two dates in and we will place the rest against them. The permit date is printed on your building permit. The start date is the day the digger turned up. Tick not yet if it hasn't. Nothing you type is saved or sent.

Permit issued

Work started on site

Not yet. Work hasn't started.

Two clocks on your permit

months

Start the work

once your permit is issued

months

Finish the work

from the day work starts

Four things council needs from you

Your surveyor issues the certificate

At final inspection

The last mandatory inspection under your permit is the final one. If the barrier passes, your building surveyor issues the Form 23. For a new pool you do not hire a separate inspector for this one.

Within 30 days

One application, not two. The 30 days runs from the day you receive the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection, not the day it was dated. Keep the email.

Council writes back, and sets your next date

You wait for this one

It must tell you the pool is registered, the construction date it has determined, which barrier standard applies, your right to appeal that date, and the date your next certificate is due. It is the only document that names your standard. Scan it.

Re-certify the barrier, and keep doing it

Every 4 years

You engage a registered inspector yourself, council does not and does not recommend anyone. The certificate you lodge must be dated no more than 30 days before you lodge it, so do not get it done early and sit on it.

A pool on its own must be finished within six months of starting. That is 183 days, and a base build does not come close to using them. The headroom is the only reason one late trade is an inconvenience rather than a breach. Registering and lodging are one act, not two: registering puts the pool on the council's register, and the certificate proving the fence passed goes in with that same application. Both are counted from the same certificate, and both are on you.

One block, two permits. If your pool is being built at the same time as other work on the same block, a verandah, a cabana or a retaining wall, it is not on the six-month clock at all. It takes the same completion period as that work, which for a structure of that kind is 24 months from the permit being issued. The rule is in the Building and Plumbing Commission's practice note BP-07. Most owners are never told either way, so it is worth confirming with your surveyor.

Those are the periods. When each one actually starts depends on real events on your build, and telling you when they land is the job.

Your permit states your completion date. If it disagrees with anything here, believe your permit and call us.

Let’s map it out.

Book a callback and we’ll walk you through what happens, and when. The first visit is free, at your kitchen table, and you owe nothing at the end of it.

Get a callback