A Queensland pool safety certificate lasts 2 years↗ for a non-shared pool and 1 year↗ for a shared one. You cannot lease a property with a non-shared pool without one: the rule is a current certificate before the lease is signed↗. Sellers without a certificate lodge Form 36↗.
The Queensland system is the most transaction-driven in the country. Nobody knocks on your door every few years. The certificate matters the moment you list the house or sign up a tenant, which is exactly when a failed gate is most expensive to discover.
How long does a certificate last?
It depends on who uses the pool. A non-shared pool, the one behind a single house, gets 2 years↗. A shared pool, the kind a body corporate looks after in a unit block, gets 1 year↗, because more people and more gates mean more chances for something to drift.
See this chart as a table
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Non-shared pool, one household | 2 years | QBCC: Buy, sell or lease a property with a pool |
| Shared pool, body corporate | 1 year | QBCC: Buy, sell or lease a property with a pool |
What does a seller have to do?
If you hold a current certificate, the job is small: before settlement↗. If you do not, you lodge Form 36↗, a notice that there is no pool safety certificate, with the QBCC and hand the buyer a copy. At auction the buyer needs it before the contract is entered into, not after the hammer falls.
The notice is not a loophole so much as a transfer. A buyer who receives one must get a certificate within 90 days of settlement↗, and for a shared pool it is the pool owner, usually the body corporate, who must get one and give the buyer a copy within 90 days of settlement↗.
Which means the cost does not disappear at settlement. It moves to the other side of the table, and buyers price it in. Getting the inspection done before you list is usually cheaper than the discount a buyer will ask for.
See this timeline as a table
| When | What has to happen | Source |
|---|---|---|
| before settlement | With a current certificate, give the buyer a copy | QBCC: Buy, sell or lease a property with a pool |
| Form 36 | Without one, lodge this notice with the QBCC and give the buyer a copy | QBCC: Buy, sell or lease a property with a pool |
| within 90 days of settlement | The buyer must obtain a certificate by then | QBCC: Buy, sell or lease a property with a pool |
What about leasing?
Stricter, and worth reading twice: for a non-shared pool a current certificate before the lease is signed↗. There is no equivalent of the seller's notice for a private pool, so the barrier has to be right before a tenant signs anything.
For a shared pool the arrangement is different, because the body corporate holds the certificate for the common pool. If you are letting a unit, ask the body corporate for the current certificate rather than assuming one exists.
Does anyone check between transactions?
Yes. Councils are authorised to check that a pool complies, and the regulator states plainly that it can fine you↗ where a pool is not registered or not compliant. A pool that has been fine for six years without a certificate is not evidence that certificates are optional. It is evidence that nobody has looked.
What gets measured
Queensland publishes the clearest barrier numbers in the country, which is why the rest of this site leans on them: at least 1200 mm↗ for the fence, no more than 100 mm↗ underneath, a 900 mm↗ non-climbable zone, and a gate that must self-close and self-latch from any open position↗. The full set is in pool fence rules.
If you are mid-transaction, the compliance checker will list the Queensland obligations for selling or leasing with the deadlines attached.