Pool Inspections in
Torquay

The Form 23 is the document that proves your pool or spa barrier is legal. Its formal name is the Certificate of Barrier Compliance, and under Victorian building law only a VBA-registered pool safety inspector can sign one. The inspector checks the barrier against the standard, and if it passes, the certificate is issued. There is no version of this you can do yourself, and there is no exemption for a pool that "looks fine."

Where Torquay owners trip up is the council. Your Form 23 goes to Surf Coast Shire Council — not the City of Greater Geelong, even though Geelong is the bigger name next door. Surf Coast keeps its own pool and spa register and takes the certificate direct from the owner. If you bought a Torquay place after living in Geelong, or your conveyancer filed against the wrong council last cycle, your record is sitting with a council that does not cover your address.

The Building and Plumbing Commission (formerly the Victorian Building Authority / VBA) sets out the inspection requirement here: https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/consumers/swimming-pools/inspections-and-compliance.

Once your Form 23 is issued, you have 30 days to lodge it with the council. The pool then falls due for re-inspection every four years, but that lodgement deadline is separate — miss it and you are non-compliant even with a current certificate in hand.

Victorian pools and spas are on a four-year re-inspection cycle — a fresh barrier inspection is required every four years. A Form 23 certifies the barrier was compliant on the day it was inspected; it is not a licence that stays "valid" for a set period, so once you are due for re-inspection an old certificate no longer reflects compliance. You also have to lodge it with the council within 30 days of issue, which is a separate deadline from the 4-year validity.

In Torquay, lapsing is more expensive than people expect. The certificate sits in a drawer, the four years quietly run out, and the first reminder is often a council notice or a conveyancer asking for a current copy mid-sale. If you cannot put your hands on your current certificate or you are not certain of the expiry, ring us on 0402 860 499 and we will work out where you stand.

The other thing driving demand here is the newer estates. Quay 2000, the Dunes and Stretton Drive went up after 2015, the original handover certificates are coming around to their first renewal, and a lot of those owners have never booked an inspection because the pool has only ever had one. Built-to-standard and currently-certified are two different things.

The VBA's barriers page is the reference for the renewal framework: https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/consumers/swimming-pools/pool-safety-barriers.

The list of people who can sign a Form 23 is short: a VBA-registered pool safety inspector, and nobody else. It is a specific registration — a general building inspector does not hold it by default, your builder cannot issue one, and a council officer at Surf Coast Shire cannot either.

Ryan Gaw is registered with the VBA under IN-PS 100055, in the Building Inspectors (Pool Safety) class. The registration is public — you can look it up on the VBA practitioner register before you book: https://bams.vba.vic.gov.au/bams/s/practitioner-search.

No council countersignature is needed. Once the barrier is compliant, Ryan signs and supplies the Form 23, and that inspector-issued certificate stands on its own — Surf Coast Shire does not have to counter-sign it. Lodging the certificate with the council is then the owner's job, not ours.

A passing inspection produces the certificate; Ryan issues it, and then lodging it with the council is your responsibility as the owner. That lodgement is the step that makes you compliant on the council's records, and you have 30 days from the date of issue to do it.

You lodge by sending the signed Form 23 to Surf Coast Shire’s building team — email is the council’s preferred method, and it is the fastest. Torquay, Bells Beach, Jan Juc and Bellbrae all sit inside Surf Coast Shire, so every one of those addresses lodges with Surf Coast, not Geelong. The council charges its own lodgement fee on top of the inspection — $22.50 as at 2026 — paid directly to them; council fees change each financial year, so check the current figure. The shire’s pool and spa register page sets out the submission details: surfcoast.vic.gov.au.

We walk you through the submission on the day of the inspection so you can lodge it without guesswork. For how lodgement works across the wider shire — the council fee and every suburb we cover — see our Surf Coast Shire pool inspection guide.

If the barrier does not meet the standard on the day, the Form 23 does not get issued — there is no partial pass. What you get instead is a written defect report listing every defect we found, item by item, so you know exactly what has to change. A routine fail like this is a defect report, not a Form 24. A Form 24 is a separate escalation, issued only where a barrier repeatedly fails re-inspection or poses an immediate threat to life.

From there it runs in four steps:

1. You get the defect report in writing.
2. You fix the items — a contractor for the bigger jobs, DIY where it is genuinely within reach.
3. Ryan comes back and re-checks the work.
4. Barrier passes, Form 23 issued.

Re-inspections after remediation are free. We do not charge a second call-out to come back and confirm a fix.

A Torquay pool safety inspection is $250 flat. That one price covers the inspection itself, the Form 23 where the barrier passes, and the guidance on getting it lodged with Surf Coast Shire. No call-out fee, nothing added at the end.

The council’s lodgement fee is the one cost that sits outside that — $22.50 as at 2026, paid straight to Surf Coast Shire; council fees change each financial year, so check their current rate.

To book or check a date: 0402 860 499 or info@localpoolinspections.com. Most Torquay bookings land within 5–10 days, and that stretches out over summer when the surf rentals all want certificates at once.

Any pool or spa holding water deeper than 30 cm needs a compliant barrier and a current Form 23. In practice, that catches:

• Homes being sold or settled
• Any property where the certificate has lapsed — whether or not a notice has turned up yet
• New pools and spas, because the builder's handover certificate runs out like any other
• Rentals, including the short-stay listings on Stayz and Airbnb

A lapsed certificate counts as no certificate at all, notice or no notice. Waiting for the council to write to you is the most expensive way to find out you are overdue — by then it is usually a sale or a renewal deadline forcing the issue.

Ryan Gaw is a Registered Pool Safety Inspector with the BPC, VBA Registration IN-PS 100055. He operates Local Pool Inspections, servicing Greater Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula, Surf Coast Shire, Moorabool & Melton Shires, and surrounding areas. A passing barrier gets its Form 23 the same day.

Ryan covers Torquay, Jan Juc, Bellbrae, Anglesea, Bells Beach and the broader Surf Coast, typically one day per week.