After more than a thousand inspections, the same handful of failures come up again and again. The good news: most cost little or nothing to fix. Here they are, roughly in order of how often we see them.
The single most common failure. Hinges lose tension over years of use, and a gate that has to be pushed shut is non-compliant, full stop. Test yours from a resting position against the latch: if it does not swing closed and latch on its own, it fails. Usually fixed with a hinge tension adjustment.
Latch release heights are set so small children cannot reach them. Gates sag over time and take the latch down with them. This is typically a ten-minute repositioning job.
Chairs, pot plants, BBQs, pool pumps, ladders and tree branches near the fence give a child a step up and over. The fence itself can be perfect and the pool still fails. The fix costs nothing: move the objects. Read more in our guide to the non-climbable zone.
The fence was compliant when installed, then a garden bed, deck or retaining wall was built beside it. Height is measured from the highest ground a child can stand on, so your 1.2 metre fence may now be effectively one metre.
Ground settles, palings shrink, and gaps grow past the allowance. Common on older timber fences and on sloping blocks.
Where a boundary fence forms part of the barrier, it has its own requirements, and the neighbour's trampoline against the other side does not help. More in our article on boundary fences as pool barriers.
The cheapest failure on the list. Signs fade, fall off or were never installed. A compliant sign costs about twenty dollars at a hardware store.
A failure is not a fine, it is a to-do list. You get an itemised report, you fix the items, and a $190 reinspection checks just those items and releases your certificate. If you would rather know where you stand before the formal inspection, walk your own barrier with our list above, or book a pool fence inspection.
Ready when you are
Fixed price confirmed before we book, inspection completed on site, and your certificate lodged for you.