Pools built before 2017: what still counts as compliant

An older pool is not automatically non-compliant. Section 450B of the Building Act deems a pool built before 1 January 2017 to comply if its barriers met the Schedule of the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act 1987 and still do. There is also a second route for pools with high, unclimbable walls. You still get inspected every three years either way.

Route one: it met the 1987 Act, and still does

Section 450B(2) deems an existing pool to have barriers that comply with s 162C if the barriers complied with the Schedule of the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act 1987 as that schedule was in force immediately before 1 January 2017, and continue to comply with those requirements — subject to any exemption granted under section 6 or clause 11 of that Schedule that was subsisting immediately before 1 January 2017, and the conditions of that exemption.

Two words in there matter: continue to. A barrier that met the old rules and has since sagged, lost a self-closing hinge or gained a firewood stack beside it is no longer continuing to comply.

Route two: the pool's own walls are the barrier

Section 450B(3) offers an alternative. An existing pool is deemed to comply if all of the following apply:

1. The outside surface of the side walls of the pool is constructed so as to inhibit climbing.
2. No part of the top of any side wall is less than 1.2 m above the adjacent ground level, above any permanent projection from the ground outside the pool and within 1.2 m of the walls, and above any object standing on the ground outside the pool and within 1.2 m of the walls.
3. Any ladder or other means of access to the interior can be readily removed or made inoperable, and is removed or made inoperable whenever the pool is not intended to be in use.

That is the old above-ground pool exception, and it is the reason your neighbour's 1990s pool with a lift-out ladder can be legal. Note that it does not exist for pools installed from 2017: Tauranga City Council states that for pools installed after 1 January 2017 a removable ladder is not enough, and the ladder must be enclosed by a complying barrier and gate.

The other saving, in s 162C itself

Section 162C(2) allows the means of restricting access to comply with the building code requirements that are in force, or those that were in force when the pool was constructed, erected or installed after 1 September 1987, where a building consent, code compliance certificate or certificate of acceptance was issued in relation to the means of restricting access.

What none of this changes

• The council must still ensure the pool is inspected at least once every 3 years, within 6 months before or after its anniversary date (s 162D).
• The people responsible are still the owner, the pool operator, the landowner, the occupier and, in some cases, a purchaser or lessee (s 162C(4)).
• Alter the barrier substantially and you are doing building work, which brings today's Building Code with it.

If an inspector has told you your older barrier fails, it is worth asking which route they assessed it under before you spend anything. What happens if your pool fails.