While most pool and spa owners are invested in the safety of their barriers, many are not thrilled about the mandatory costs of having them inspected.
One local inspector is helping offset that expense by passing on a portion of her fee to a local swim safety charity.
Row Florence, of North Vic Pool Safety Compliance, donated $4100 to The Hunter Boyle Children’s Swim Program last year and will make another lump sum donation after tax time this year.
The local charity was founded in 2021 by two-year-old Hunter Boyle’s parents, Ash Napolitano and Matt Boyle, in partnership with Kidsafe Victoria.
Hunter sadly drowned in a farm dam the year before.
During her first week inspecting safety barriers, one of her clients, who was upset about having been mandated to have his fence checked, questioned how what she does helps save kids’ lives.
That’s when Ms Florence decided she would support the charity.
“The program provides swimming lessons and water safety education to kids that wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to have swimming lessons,” she said.
“The money goes towards paying for swimming lessons, swimming teachers, equipment like bathers and floaties and kickboards.
“It just made sense, complete sense.
“Why wouldn’t we be putting this money back into teaching kids how to swim?”
Ms Florence was working at a pool shop when news of the impending Victorian Government legislation to make the registration of swimming pools and spas mandatory.
The law stated that from December 1, 2019, all swimming pools and spas in Victoria must be registered by their owners with their local council.
The council then cross-checked registrations with existing records to determine which Australian Standard the pool or spa fell under, based on their build date, and then entered it into a register to be inspected for compliance.
Licensed inspectors must carry out the check, and a certificate of compliance must be lodged with the council at further cost to the pool or spa owner.
Ms Florence completed around 18 months of training through the Victorian Building Authority to get her ticket in 2019 after realising there was a demand for local inspectors when staff at the pool shop had looked to recommend providers of the service to their clients.
They could only find inspectors in Melbourne, which incidentally is where Ms Florence had to spend time shadowing a mentor on the job as part of her training.
She started her “side-hustle” business the following year, in 2020, while still working at the pool shop, but it quickly grew too big for part-time work.
Four years on, Ms Florence’s business now provides her with full-time work.
Ms Florence offers barrier inspections on existing pools, pre-purchase inspections and on-site advice consultations, along with a detailed report of what needed to be done to ensure compliance.
Ms Florence said the legislation must be working because the pass rate of older pools was only about 10 per cent in the past.
“Now new pools are being inspected this year the pass rate is 90 per cent on the first inspection,” she said.
Ms Florence said sometimes it could be difficult to tell pool and spa owners that their barriers had failed inspection, but most of them took it well once she explained the reasons and offered them suggestions for solutions.
“You would imagine people get cranky when you tell them something in their own backyard has to be changed,” Ms Florence said.
“But I’ve found if you can explain the reasons why and talk about how they can fix things and give them options rather than just saying ‘that’s the rules’ you don’t have too many problems.”
Ms Florence said the common noncompliances were mostly unintentional, such as wear and tear on moving parts and ground movement making posts shift.
For barrier rules and to lodge certificates of compliance: www.greatershepparton.com.au/bpi/building/pools-and-spas/pools-and-spas-registration
To donate to The Hunter Boyle Swim Program: www.givenow.com.au/cr/hunterboyleswim