There is a particular phone call we get every few weeks. Someone is three weeks from settlement, their conveyancer has asked for the pool’s certificate of occupancy, and it does not exist. Nobody did anything wrong — they bought the house with the pool already in the ground — but the problem is now theirs, and it is standing between them and a sale.
What “unapproved” actually means
Building a swimming pool in the ACT is building work. Non-exempt building work generally requires a building approval before it starts, inspections at defined stages while it proceeds, and a certificate of occupancy at the end. The certificate of occupancy is the document that records that the work was completed and approved.
A pool is unapproved, in the loose sense people use the word, if any of that chain is broken:
- There is a building approval, inspections were done, but the final inspection never happened and so no certificate of occupancy was issued.
- There is a building approval but the electrical work was never certified, which by itself will hold up the certificate.
- There is no building approval at all — the pool went in without one.
The first is by far the most common, and it is also the least alarming. In many cases the pool itself is perfectly sound; what is missing is paperwork that a builder should have closed out years ago.
Why it surfaces when it does
Almost nobody discovers this on a quiet Tuesday. It comes up when a conveyancer requests documents during a sale, when a buyer’s building inspector flags it, or when the ACT Government makes contact.
That last one deserves a note. The Building Act 2004 gives the construction occupations registrar power to inspect building work where no approval was issued, and following the 2023 pool safety amendments, a regulated swimming pool that may not comply with the pool safety provisions is expressly a circumstance in which an inspection can be directed. In other words, the pool safety reforms have made these files more visible, not less.
If you are mid-sale, ring someone before you tell the buyer anything. Not to conceal it — you cannot and should not — but because “there is an issue with the pool paperwork” and “there is an issue, here is the pathway, here is the timeframe, here is who is handling it” are two completely different conversations, and they produce two completely different price negotiations.
The pathway
Retrospective approval is not one task. It is five or six professions, each with lead times, each needing something from the others.
1. Establish what is on file
Before anything else, find out what actually exists: approvals, plans, inspection records, electrical certificates. This determines the whole shape of the job. An owner who thinks they have nothing sometimes has most of it, and occasionally the reverse.
2. Engage a building certifier
A licensed building certifier assesses the pool and the barrier and, at the end, issues the certificate of occupancy. Everything else in the process exists to give the certifier what they need.
3. Fill the gaps
Typically some combination of: a structural engineer to verify the pool shell, its surrounds or an adjacent retaining wall; a licensed electrician to certify pumps, lighting, heating, bonding and RCD protection; a registered surveyor where boundaries, setbacks or easements are in question; and a draftsperson to produce as-built plans where none exist or the old ones no longer match reality.
4. Bring the barrier to standard
The safety barrier has to satisfy AS 1926.1–2012 regardless of everything else. Height, ground clearance, non-climbable zones, gates, doors and windows. This is often the most visible part of the work and the part owners can most easily picture.
5. Submit and follow through
The assembled package goes to the ACT Government, and somebody needs to stay on it, responding to requests for further information until the matter is finalised.
What it costs, and why nobody can tell you on the phone
Two pools on the same street can be a five-figure difference apart. The cost moves with how far the certification has to go, what was originally submitted, how much documentation survives, how close the pool sits to a boundary, and what the barrier and the electrical work need.
A pool with an approval, good plans and only a final inspection outstanding is a modest project. A pool with no approval, no plans, no electrical certificate and a shell 600mm off a boundary is a different animal. Anyone who quotes you a firm number before looking at your file is guessing.
Can you just sell it as-is?
Sometimes, with the issue disclosed and the price adjusted. But you are negotiating from the weakest position available to you, buyers needing finance may not be able to proceed, and the discount a nervous purchaser applies to an unknown is almost always larger than the cost of resolving it.
If you have time before listing, resolving it first is nearly always the better financial outcome as well as the less stressful one.
Need this sorted for a specific property?
Fixed-fee inspections across the ACT and surrounding NSW. Certificate $395, disclosure statement $350. Free advice on the phone if you’re not sure which you need.
Book an Inspection 0456 676 683