Swimming Pool Safety – Changing Inspection Requirements

Updates to Practice Direction 8

Swimming Pool Safety – Changing Inspection Requirements

On 1 July 2025, a new version of Practice Direction 8 (available here) became operational and brought into effect changes to Council inspection requirements for swimming pools and their safety features.

Mandatory Inspection Triggers and Timeframes – Part 2, Clause 2

Councils are now required to undertake mandatory inspections within the relevant timeframe upon being notified of:

• the completion of the swimming pool and/or swimming pool safety features; or
• the installation of a temporary safety barrier for a swimming pool containing a water depth greater than 300mm.

This new mandatory inspection trigger relating to pools which have been filled to a level exceeding 300mm aligns with the threshold requirements in the Building Code of Australia for the application of swimming pool safety features.

Mandatory Inspection Timeframes – Part 2, Clause 2

The new version of PD 8 extends the timeframe for Councils outside of Metropolitan Adelaide to undertake mandatory inspections to 15 business days from when Council is notified.

Metropolitan Councils (including the Adelaide Hills local government area) still have 10 business days to inspect from when they are notified.

Record Keeping Part 4, Clause 1

From 1 July 2025 Councils are to keep records of inspections carried out in accordance with the Practice Direction in the SA Planning Portal. As under the previous Practice Direction version this does not derogate from any authorisation to dispose of records under the State Records Act 1997.

Under the new version 6 of PD 8 there are no longer express requirements regarding the content of inspection records to be maintained.

Counting Inspections – Part 4, Clause 2

One inspection of swimming pool safety features is required to meet the mandatory inspection requirements of the new PD 8 version. Additional inspections of the property are encouraged where issues are detected but will not to be counted towards the mandatory requirements. Rather, they will be acknowledged by the Commission “as having been undertaken in pursuit of the achievement of the object of the Practice Direction”.

For more specific information on any of the material contained in this article please contact Gavin Leydon on +61 8 8210 1225 or gleydon@normans.com.au or Stephan Koefer on +61 8 8217 1368 or skoefer@normans.com.au