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DIVING DEEP INTO SWIMMING POOL LEGISLATION by Alan Priest

Did you know that if you want to sell your house and it has a swimming pool you must have attached to the contract a certificate from the local council? It must state that either the pool complies with the appropriate regulations (e.g. in relation to fencing, gate latches and clearances from vegetation etc) or a certificate of non-compliance which states what is required to make the pool compliant. If the pool is non-compliant, the law requires that it be made compliant within 12 months. But what if neither seller or buyer wants to go to the expense of making the pool compliant? It may be that both parties know what needs to be done and the seller has happily enjoyed the pool as it is, the buyer is also happy with the pool as it is and thinks the work required to make it compliant will spoil the visual appearance of the pool.

In a recent Supreme Court case that was exactly the situation. The parties agreed, by means of a special condition in their contract of sale, that the pool would stay as it was and the purchaser would not object to the fact that no Swimming Pool Certificate was attached to the contract or that the swimming pool was non-compliant.

However, in the 6 week period between the date of the contract and the intended settlement date, the purchaser decided that he no longer wanted to go ahead with the purchase of the house for reasons that had nothing to do with the swimming pool and he refused to complete the sale, notwithstanding the special condition in the contract.

The purchaser relied on the fact that there was no Swimming Pool Certificate attached to the contract and as a consequence alleged he was entitled to terminate the contract and recover the deposit he had paid.

For his part, the seller of the house pointed to the express written condition in the contract by which the buyer agreed that he knew the pool was non-compliant but would raise no objection to that fact or to the absence from the contract of the Swimming Pool Certificate.

The purchaser relied on the fact that there was no Swimming Pool Certificate attached to the contract and as a consequence, alleged he was entitled to terminate the contract and recover the deposit he had paid.

Certificate be attached to the contract was a requirement that the parties themselves could not exclude by inserting the special condition in the contract. Even though they both knew the position in relation to the pool, the parties could not contract out of the law which required the attachment of the Swimming Pool Certificate and the purchaser was entitled to escape the contract and recover the deposit he had paid.

There are many laws which apply unless the parties otherwise expressly agree that they are not to apply to their particular transaction, but the situation in relation to swimming pools is one in which the need for the attachment of the certificate is mandatory and it could not be avoided by a clause in the contract.

Unfortunately for the seller, the Court held that the requirement for a Swimming Pool

If you are buying or selling a property, come and see our experienced solicitors and licensed conveyancers at Priest Legal.

P: 6583 1777; www.priestlegal.com.au

GLEN-HOLMES

Congratulations and well done to all those businesses that have taken the time to enter the 2023 Coastline Credit Union Greater Port Macquarie Business Awards. I hope that this gave you an opportunity to take time to have a good look at your business and help towards your plans for the year ahead. We can see from the many nominations that we received that your clients really appreciate the services that you offer. I look forward to seeing all of our entrants at our Movie Night on the 27th April thanks to one of our sponsors Majestic Cinemas and the evening is sponsored by Port Medical Aesthetics Clinic. Now the judging process begins. For this section, we have a number of independent judges, many from outside the area to ensure total transparency and fairness. I look forward to being able to announce the successful finalists.

It’s now time to organise your teams to book tickets for the Gala Dinner on Saturday, 20th May. Tickets are on sale from 19 April.

April is Mental Health Awareness Month and we are hosting a breakfast on 20th April sponsored by Linked Community

Services to be held at Westport Club. We will be delving into this important issue that affects all of us, our families and our teams. Join us for this informative morning. Are you a business owner and/or director of your company? Do you currently sit on a company board or are you looking to be a valuable member of a board? Would you be open to participating in the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) course to be held in Port Macquarie later this year? We have joined forces with AICD to bring the highly acclaimed Company Directors Course to Port Macquarie. The course will be offered in a 5-day block held in August to September depending on availability of the AICD faculty. If you would be interested in attending this course, please email Katherine at executive@businesspmq.com. au for more information.

Hastings Business Women’s Network is hosting their inaugural race day at the Port Macquarie Race Club on Sunday 23rd April from 12pm. Come dressed in your best and enjoy a fun filled day with music, food and

TAB facilities will be available. All money raised will go towards helping HBWN supported charities in our local area.

A big thank you to Gary King from Integer IT, Sophos, Charles Sturt University and Oxley Insurance Brokers for your collaboration for a very successful, informative and topical presentation on Cyber Security on 2 March. We have had many ask whether we can run this again as an evening event. If this is of interest to you please let myself or Katherine know via email on executive@businesspmq.com. au and we can then make arrangements for this to happen again.

We would like to wish you, your teams and your families a happy and safe Easter and hopefully you can take a few days to recharge after what has been a very busy start to the year.

Our Quote for the month – “If we did all the things we were capable of, we would astound ourselves” – Thomas Edison. Have a great month.