Swim­ming pool com­pli­ance leg­is­la­tion delay: A sen­si­ble outcome 

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In Brief

Leg­isla­tive changes were to come into effect from 29 April 2014 requir­ing swim­ming pool com­pli­ance cer­tifi­cates to be annexed to con­tracts for the sale or lease of land.

The Office of Local Gov­ern­ment announced on 28 March 2014 that the imple­men­ta­tion of these changes would be post­poned for a fur­ther 12 months, to com­mence on 29 April 2015.

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Our Pre­vi­ous Article

On 13 March 2014, we report­ed on the changes to swim­ming pool com­pli­ance require­ments in rela­tion to the sale and leas­ing of land, which were pre­vi­ous­ly to apply from 29 April 2014. A link to that arti­cle which gives infor­ma­tion about the changes can be found here.

Those leg­isla­tive changes will now come into effect on 29 April 2015.

Rea­sons for Postponement

The Cir­cu­lar to Coun­cils, sent by the NSW Office of Local Gov­ern­ment, a link to which can be found here, includ­ed the fol­low­ing rea­sons for the postponement:

• unac­cept­able delays to own­ers who want to sell or lease their dwelling- caused by high inspec­tion fail­ure rates and stretched coun­cil resources;
• the addi­tion­al work being gen­er­at­ed for repairs and upgrades in con­nec­tion with rec­ti­fi­ca­tion of non-com­pli­ant pools has placed pres­sure on pool trades and ser­vices; and
• real estate indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives sought more time to deal with swim­ming pool com­pli­ance issues before sell­ing or leasing.

Coun­cils will be able to use the addi­tion­al time to raise aware­ness of the changes and adapt their own sys­tems, process­es and resources to deal with the increase in demand for their services.

If you are think­ing of list­ing your prop­er­ty for sale or lease and have any ques­tions with respect to your swim­ming pool com­pli­ance, please con­tact one of our prop­er­ty law experts.