Pool Barrier Compliance & Form 23
Melton City Council

Regulation sets four fee ceilings that no Victorian council can exceed under the Building Regulations 2018: registration (reg 147P(2)), an information search (reg 147P(3)), Form 23 lodgement (reg 147X(2)), and Form 24 non-compliance lodgement (reg 147ZJ(2)) — each capped by the regulation; confirm the current amounts with council.

Melton's own fee sits at or below the legal maximum above — call the council for the exact current figure if it matters for your planning. What we can promise: your barrier passes, I sign and hand you the Form 23 that same visit, and getting it to the council within the 30-day window from there is on you as the owner — we'll tell you exactly where it needs to land.

Two councils we've verified give a sense of the real range: Greater Geelong's published Form 23 fee sits a little under the statutory cap, Wyndham's lands almost exactly on it. Melton adopts its own figure at or below that ceiling; confirm the exact current amount with the council directly, since adopted fees are reviewed each financial year.

Nothing dramatic happens the day the barrier itself fails: you get a written Non-Conformance Report spelling out the fix, then a free re-inspection once it's done — that's the same process everywhere on our route, Melton included.

Where it escalates is a barrier that never actually gets fixed. That's when a Form 24 Certificate of Pool and Spa Barrier Non-Compliance gets issued — its lodgement fee is capped at 26 fee units under reg 147ZJ(2), and the owner has at least 28 days from council's notice to pay it.

Behind the Form 24 sits the actual statutory penalty, set once for the whole state: reg 147V(1) fines a missed Form 23 deadline at 10 penalty units, and reg 147X(3) applies the same 10-unit fine if the lodgement fee itself goes unpaid. These statutory figures apply uniformly across every Victorian council, Melton included.

Worth knowing if you're in a Melton estate: a number of developments here carry their own covenant rules governing fence styles, including around the pool. A covenant can shape what your barrier looks like, but it has zero authority to loosen what AS1926.1 requires it to actually do. Before any fencing work, check both sets of rules — a barrier that satisfies the pool standard but breaches your estate covenant is still a problem you'll need to sort.

Already failed once? The re-inspections service covers the free follow-up visit once your Non-Conformance Report items are fixed — no extra call-out fee anywhere in the Melton growth corridor.

Want to know before the inspector arrives whether a new-build barrier or an estate covenant fence will pass? The compliance consultation service checks your fence against the 1200mm and non-climbable-zone rules first — particularly worth it before signing off on fencing work in a covenant-controlled estate.

For what the certificate itself covers, see the Form 23 certificate page. Selling a Melton property with a pool? The pool inspection for property sale service walks through the Section 32 timeline.

Ready to book, or checking whether your estate's handover certificate is already due for renewal? Get in touch or call 0402 860 499. Every Melton suburb also has its own dedicated re-inspections and compliance consultation page — find them in the grid below.