The 1 May 2028 pool deadline: what ACT owners actually have to do

The ACT’s swimming pool safety reforms commenced on 1 May 2024 with a four-year transition period. That period ends on 1 May 2028, and the question most Canberra pool owners have is a simple one: does this apply to me, and what do I have to do about it?

Which pools are caught

The scheme applies to a swimming pool or spa that can hold water deeper than 300mm and is associated with a residence — a house, a unit, or a unit complex. That is a low bar. Plenty of plunge pools, small spas and above-ground pools clear it comfortably.

What determines your obligation is when the pool was built, altered or installed:

Pools built since 1 May 2013 have been legally required to meet the prescribed safety standard from the day they were built, so in principle there should be little to do. In practice, a barrier that was compliant on the day of handover often isn’t compliant a decade later — because a shed went up, a retaining wall was built, a tree grew, or a garden bed crept towards the fence.

What the certificate actually is

A compliance certificate is issued by an authorised person after an inspection of the barrier against the prescribed safety standard, which in the ACT is AS 1926.1–2012, applied under Part 5A of the Building Act 2004.

Two outcomes are possible. If the barrier complies, the certificate says so. If it doesn’t, the authorised person must give you written notice setting out the remedial work required and a period to do it — a period which cannot exceed six months. You rectify the items, the work is inspected, and the certificate is then issued.

Lodgement, and the dates that matter

Getting the certificate isn’t the end of it. For a pool built before 1 May 2013, the certificate has to be lodged with the construction occupations registrar within 30 days of being given to you, and in any case before 1 June 2028. Penalties apply for failing to lodge.

There is also a quiet advantage to acting early. A compliance certificate issued before 1 May 2028 runs until 30 April 2032. One issued after that date is valid for five years from issue. Certify in 2026 and you get the balance of the transition period plus four more years, on a document you would have needed anyway.

Why late is expensive

Most older Canberra barriers need something done. Frequently it is minor — a gate hinge, a latch at the wrong height, a 110mm gap where 100mm is the maximum, a woodpile inside the non-climbable zone. But minor work still needs a contractor, and contractors get booked.

There is a finite number of authorised persons in the ACT and tens of thousands of regulated pools. Every one of the pre-2013 pools needs a certificate inside the same window. The owners who leave it to the back half of 2027 will be competing for both inspection slots and fencing trades at exactly the moment demand peaks — and if a barrier needs substantial rebuilding, six months disappears quickly.

Exemptions, briefly

There are limited circumstances in which compliance isn’t required at all, such as a demountable pool in place for no more than three consecutive days, or a spa secured by a compliant lockable child-resistant cover. There are also grounds on which an exemption may be applied for, including where a pool area physically cannot accommodate a compliant barrier, where compliance would require removal of a protected tree, where heritage significance would be affected, where compliance would prevent a person with a disability from accessing the pool, or where there are documented plans to remove the pool within 24 months. The grounds available depend on when the pool was built, and an exemption certificate lasts a maximum of five years.

Exemptions are the exception. If you think you might have a case, it is worth an inspection first — knowing precisely which requirement your site cannot meet is what an application turns on.