Pool Inspection in Greater Geelong: The Council Lodgement Process

Reviewed by Ryan Gaw, VBA-registered pool safety inspector (IN-PS), Local Pool Inspections.

In Greater Geelong, a Form 23 barrier-compliance certificate has to be lodged with the council’s Pool and Spa Register within 30 days of issue, and it then holds for four years under Victoria’s four-year inspection cycle. The City of Greater Geelong runs the register and stamps the certificate once it lands. Most owners assume the inspection is the hard part. More often it’s the lodgement and the paperwork afterward that catches people out, especially when a sale is on the clock.

The Greater Geelong Pool and Spa Register

Under the Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), every pool or spa capable of holding water more than 300 mm deep in the municipality has to be registered with the council. The City of Greater Geelong holds that register, and against your address it records:

• Property address
• Pool or spa type, dimensions, and approximate install date
• Current Form 23 status and validity dates
• Any earlier Form 23 and Form 24 records
• The inspecting inspector’s name and VBA licence

That install date is the line that does the work. It fixes which version of AS 1926.1 your barrier is judged against — see our complete guide to Victorian pool regulations for how the eras break down — which is why I confirm it before I look at the fence rather than after.

Got a pool but never registered it? You can do that through the council’s online forms or directly with the Building Permits team, at no cost. One thing worth knowing before you book anyone: an inspector can’t issue a Form 23 until the registration is on file. Sort it first or the inspection stalls on the day.

How a Form 23 Gets Lodged

Only the first stage needs you on site. The rest is the inspector’s paperwork.

It starts with the on-site inspection. A VBA-registered inspector assesses the barrier against the version of AS 1926.1 that applied when the pool was built; a Victorian pool keeps the standard it was built under, not whatever’s current. If it passes, the inspector issues the Form 23 that same day.

The signed certificate is then lodged electronically with the City of Greater Geelong’s Building Permits & Compliance team. Most of us do this the same day or the next morning, while the job’s still fresh. Council checks the details against the register, updates your address record, and stamps the certificate as received. From lodgement to stamped copy is usually a few business days in Geelong. It does stretch around the spring rush, when half the municipality seems to book in the same fortnight.

Finally the stamped copy comes back by email to both the inspector and the owner. Keep it somewhere you’ll find it again. That stamped PDF is what a conveyancer asks for at sale, what an agent wants before a listing goes up, and what an insurer may request. Chasing a replacement later is slower than holding onto the original now.

What If You Can’t Find Your Form 23?

This is the call I take most often. A sale’s underway, the conveyancer has asked for the Form 23, and the owner has no idea where it is, or never had a copy because the previous owner held the pool. Which fix you need comes down to one thing: whether a current certificate already exists.

Start with the council. It’s free and it might be the whole answer. Ask the City of Greater Geelong Building Permits team for any Form 23 currently on file for your address. If there’s an in-date one sitting there, they can email it across and that’s the end of it. No inspection, no fee.

If nothing’s on file, or what’s there has aged out before your settlement date, you book a fresh inspection. A Form 23 runs for four years, and a sale needs a current, in-date one, so a certificate that lapses mid-settlement is no use to anyone. Your conveyancer sets the exact timing your contract needs. That part’s their call, not mine. The inspection itself is straightforward to slot in.

How Greater Geelong Handles Re-Inspections

If a barrier doesn’t pass at a renewal or pre-sale inspection, you get a Form 24 instead, which is the non-compliance notice, and that result goes on the Pool and Spa Register too. It isn’t a black mark for life. Once the fault’s fixed and the barrier re-inspects clean, the new Form 23 supersedes the Form 24 in the council record, and the current certificate is what shows. Local Pool Inspections folds the re-inspection into the original $250. You book once. There’s no second call-out charge if something needs sorting on the first visit.

The things that send a renewal to a Form 24 around here are rarely dramatic. A self-closing gate hinge that’s lost its spring tension. A new pot plant or pool-pump box left sitting inside the non-climbable zone. A length of boundary fence the neighbour replaced lower than the one before it. None of it deliberate. They’re the everyday changes that build up across four years between inspections, and the owner rarely clocks them.

A Few Things Particular to Greater Geelong

Greater Geelong carries one of the bigger pool populations of any Victorian council, so the Building Permits team is processing lodgements in volume every week. That sounds like it should mean slow turnaround. In practice it doesn’t. They’re geared for the volume, and a few business days stays the norm outside the spring peak.

The geography gives the team two different jobs. Inland Geelong tends toward the older-fence problems: timber boundary fences, tired gate hardware, pools that predate the current standard. Out on the Bellarine the issue is salt. Coastal air corrodes gate latches and hinge springs faster than anything inland, and a Portarlington or Ocean Grove barrier that passed four years ago can quietly seize up by the next renewal. Different failure patterns, one register.

Worth being clear on this part: the register is the council’s, not the state’s. There’s no Victoria-wide database you can search. If your pool’s in Greater Geelong, Greater Geelong holds the record, and a pool that changed hands from a Wyndham address doesn’t carry its old registration across.

Suburbs Covered by the City of Greater Geelong

If you’re not certain Greater Geelong is your council, here’s the municipality it covers:

• Inland Geelong: Geelong, Newtown, Highton, Belmont, Grovedale, Waurn Ponds, Armstrong Creek, Mount Duneed, Charlemont, East Geelong, Geelong West, North Geelong, Norlane, Hamlyn Heights, Manifold Heights, Drumcondra, Whittington, St Albans Park, Newcomb, Moolap, Wandana Heights, Breakwater
• Northern corridor: Lara, Corio, Bell Park, Bell Post Hill, North Shore
• Bellarine Peninsula: Drysdale, Curlewis, Clifton Springs, Portarlington, Indented Head, St Leonards, Point Lonsdale, Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Leopold, Wallington, Marcus Hill, Mannerim, Connewarre
• Outer / rural: Anakie, Batesford, Lovely Banks, Fyansford, Stonehaven, Ceres, Little River

If your property is in any of these suburbs, the City of Greater Geelong is your council and the lodgement process above applies. See our pool inspections across Greater Geelong page for suburb-by-suburb coverage and booking.

How It Compares Across the Border Councils

The underlying rules are the same statewide: 30 days to lodge, four years’ validity, a council-held register. What shifts council to council is turnaround and how busy the permits team is. Wyndham City runs its own process, with turnaround broadly in line with Geelong’s. Moorabool Shire is a smaller team covering fewer pools, so its turnaround tends to run a touch slower. That’s only a problem if you’ve left a pre-sale certificate to the last week.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have to lodge my Form 23 with Greater Geelong?

The Form 23 must be lodged with the council’s Pool and Spa Register within 30 days of the date it was issued. In practice the inspector lodges it for you electronically, usually the same day or the next business day.

How long is a Greater Geelong Form 23 valid?

Four years from the date of issue. After that the barrier needs re-inspecting and a fresh Form 23 lodged. A Form 23 is also required when you sell, as part of the Section 32 vendor statement — see our Section 32 timeline guide.

I can’t find my Form 23 — can the council give me a copy?

Yes. Contact the City of Greater Geelong Building Permits team and ask for any current Form 23 on file for your address. If a valid certificate exists, council can email a copy. If none is on file or it’s expired, you’ll need a fresh inspection.

Does Greater Geelong run its own register, or is it state-wide?

Local, and council-run. There’s no single Victoria-wide register to search — Greater Geelong, Wyndham and Moorabool each hold their own. Your record lives with whichever council your pool sits in.