The Form 23 in your Section 32 can be three and a half years old and still be perfectly valid. That is the gap worth understanding before you sign. The certificate records the state of the barrier on the day it was inspected, and nothing after it. Gates sag, gardens grow, decks get built. Nobody re-checks any of that between the inspection and your settlement.
In Victoria a pool or spa is a registered structure with a barrier held to a legal standard, and the day the title changes hands, the obligation becomes yours. Below is what to look at before you sign, and what it costs when something has moved.
What the vendor has to give you
Under Victoria’s sale and disclosure requirements, a vendor selling a property with a pool or spa that holds water deeper than 300 mm must attach a current Form 23 Certificate of Barrier Compliance to the Section 32 vendor statement.
That is the document to look for. If it is not there, ask why. A missing Form 23 does not kill a deal on its own, but it is a negotiating point, and sometimes it means the barrier has already been looked at and would not pass.
The certificate’s limits matter more than its contents. It certifies that the barrier complied on the date of inspection, and certificates run on a four-year cycle. So the one sitting in your Section 32 may describe a barrier that has since had a garden bed built against it, or had a gate spring give out, or lost a fence panel to a storm and gained a replacement nobody measured.
The three checks worth doing before you sign
1. Does a current certificate exist?
Find it in the Section 32. Check the issue date, and check the expiry — Victorian barrier certificates are valid for four years from issue. If it expires two months after settlement, that is a cost landing on you almost immediately, and it is fair to raise it.
2. Was the inspector registered when they signed it?
Almost nobody does this one, and it is the one that voids a certificate outright. Only a VBA-registered pool safety inspector can legally issue a Form 23. Those registrations are now administered by the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC, formerly the VBA), which took over on 1 July 2025; existing registrations transferred across automatically and stay valid to their expiry, so both names are correct on a current certificate.
The licence number is printed on the Form 23 itself, with an IN-PS prefix and six digits after it. Anyone can check it free, without an account, on the VBA’s public practitioner search at bams.vba.vic.gov.au. Type the number in, and the inspector’s name and registration status come back. It takes about a minute, and it is the only part of the certificate you can independently verify yourself.
If the inspector was not registered on the day they signed, the certificate does not hold, however thorough the inspection was. Our guide to verifying an inspector’s IN-PS registration walks through what the register screen shows you.
3. Does the barrier still match what was certified?
Walk the barrier yourself at the second inspection, when the agent is busy with someone else. You are not doing a formal assessment. You are looking for the handful of things that drift over four years:
- The gate. Open it partway, let go, and watch what happens. It has to swing shut and latch on its own from any position, with no nudge and no second attempt. Worn springs and dropped hinges are the most common failure we see, by a wide margin.
- Ground level against the fence. The barrier has to stand at least 1200 mm above finished ground level on the outside face, measured at the lowest point. Decking, a raised garden bed or a delivery of mulch can lift the ground and quietly drop a once-compliant fence under the mark.
- Climbable objects. Pot plants, an air-conditioning unit, a retaining wall, a stacked woodpile. Anything sitting in the non-climbable zone on the outside of the barrier is a problem, and this is the category that changes most, because these things get moved around all the time.
- New structures. A shed, pergola or extension put up since the certificate was issued can change the barrier’s geometry without anyone involved giving it a thought.
None of that is a compliance verdict. Where the ground has risen or something climbable has crept into the zone, the fix depends on the pool’s construction date and how the barrier is built, and that call belongs to the inspector on site.
If you want a systematic version, our pool barrier checklist for Victorian homeowners covers the same ground in order.
What it costs if the barrier does not comply
This is the number buyers actually want, and it comes in two parts. The inspection is fixed: a flat $250 all-inclusive across our service area, re-inspection included. The remediation is the part that varies, and it varies a long way.
- Gate hardware. A new self-closing hinge set or latch. Usually the cheapest fix, and frequently the only one a barrier needs.
- Removing or relocating climbable objects. Often costs nothing but an afternoon, assuming the object is a pot plant and not a retaining wall.
- Raising or extending a fence section. Mid-range, and it swings on the material and the run length.
- Replacing a non-compliant barrier outright. The expensive end. This is the one you want to know about while you can still negotiate, not after settlement when it is your problem alone.
A licensed installer or fencing contractor quotes the remediation, not us. What the inspection buys you is a written list of exactly what fails and why, which is the document you take to get those quotes, and the one you put in front of the vendor’s agent.
For what the inspection fee itself covers and what sits outside it, see our breakdown of what the $250 pool inspection includes.
Older properties are where the surprises live
A barrier is assessed against the edition of the standard in force when the pool was built, and it keeps that edition for life. Buyers usually hear this as good news for an older property. It rarely works out that way, for a reason that has nothing to do with the standard. An older pool has simply had more owners, more landscaping and more helpful weekend modifications, and any one of those can push a barrier that genuinely complied out of compliance.
In the older inland suburbs around Geelong the pattern is mature planting that has spent thirty years growing into the non-climbable zone. Our piece on why older Geelong pools fail their inspections covers the recurring culprits.
Closer to the coast it is the hardware rather than the garden. Salt air corrodes gate fittings from the inside out, so you get latches that look sound to the eye and still fail to catch reliably when the gate is tested repeatedly from different positions.
Timing it around settlement
Book it inside your due diligence period, not after settlement. A failed barrier found before you sign is a number you can negotiate with. The same failure found after settlement is just a bill you pay.
Our pre-settlement inspection timeline sets out realistic lead times, which matter when a due diligence window is short. If the barrier does fail, the re-inspection path after a failed inspection explains what follows. The re-inspection is included in the $250, so a fail does not turn into a second invoice.
After you settle: the obligation is yours
Once the property is yours, so is the four-year cycle. No reminder is sent. Councils hold the lodged certificate, but the diary note is on you, and most owners find out theirs lapsed when a conveyancer asks for it during a sale. That is the worst moment to discover it, because a repair job then sits on the critical path of somebody else’s settlement.
Put the expiry date wherever you keep the rates notice. Our guide to the four-year barrier inspection cycle explains how the timing runs from there.
FAQ
Do I need a pool inspection when buying a house in Victoria?
Not as a legal requirement on the buyer. The obligation runs the other way: the vendor must supply a current Form 23 with the Section 32. An independent inspection during due diligence earns its keep in two situations, when the certificate is close to expiry and when the barrier has visibly changed since it was issued, because from settlement onwards any remediation cost is yours.
Is the vendor’s Form 23 enough?
It proves the barrier complied on the day it was inspected, which can be up to four years back. It does not prove the barrier complies now. Landscaping, gate wear and new structures are the usual reasons a certified barrier stops complying. Check that the certificate was signed by a VBA-registered inspector (those registrations are now administered by the BPC, formerly the VBA) whose IN-PS registration was current on the date of issue.
What happens if I buy a property with a non-compliant pool barrier?
The obligation transfers with the title. Bringing the barrier into compliance is your responsibility, as is the next certificate when the four-year cycle comes round. Councils can issue penalties for non-compliant barriers, and an insurer may take compliance into account on a pool-related claim.
How much does a pre-purchase pool inspection cost in Victoria?
A flat $250 all-inclusive across Greater Geelong, the Bellarine, Moorabool and Wyndham. That covers travel, the on-site inspection, the Form 23 where the barrier passes, lodgement with your council, and a free re-inspection if remediation is needed.
Can I ask the vendor to fix the pool barrier before settlement?
Yes, and it is an ordinary part of the negotiation. Where an inspection identifies non-compliance, buyers commonly ask for the work to be done before settlement or for a price adjustment covering it. Having the number in hand before you sign is what puts you in a position to ask.
Buying a property with a pool? Know the number before you sign.
Flat $250 all-inclusive across Greater Geelong, the Bellarine, Moorabool and Wyndham. Form 23 issued same day where the barrier passes, lodged with council, free re-inspection if remediation is needed.
Call 0402 860 499 or book online.