Tradie Forms: finish the nonconformity notice at the pool while the fence, gate, and non-climbable zone are in front of you, and hand the owner a clean copy before you leave. These guides help QLD pool safety inspectors keep records straight; the same on-site habits apply as we add more Australian trade templates.
You have inspected a backyard pool, the gate self-closes but does not latch from every open position, and the owner is standing there asking for a certificate. Under Queensland pool safety law you cannot hand them one, and you cannot just walk away either. When a regulated pool does not pass, the pool safety inspector has to give the owner a written nonconformity notice, and Form 26 is the notice the Queensland Building and Construction Commission publishes for that job. Get the non-compliance and the required action written plainly and the owner knows exactly what to fix. Leave a field vague and you get callbacks, disputes, and a reinspection that goes nowhere.
This guide covers when a Form 26 has to be issued, what it must say, the timeframes that run from the day you give it, and how to complete the notice so it holds up.
If you are writing one up today, open the QLD Form 26 pool safety nonconformity notice. Browse other QLD building forms, or if the owner has a sale coming up and no certificate at all, see the QLD Form 36 notice of no pool safety certificate that covers that situation. The Form 36 guide explains the sale, settlement and leasing deadlines.
When does a Form 26 have to be issued?
The trigger is simple. If a pool safety inspector inspects a regulated pool and is not reasonably satisfied it is a complying pool, they must give the owner a nonconformity notice. Under section 246AB of the Building Act 1975 that notice has to reach the owner within 2 business days after the inspection.
There are two ways out of issuing the notice, and both close quickly. The first is that within those 2 business days you reinspect the pool and are satisfied it now complies, which usually means a small fault was corrected on the spot. The second is that the owner and you agree that you will carry out particular minor repairs to make the pool comply, and within 20 business days of that agreement you do the repairs and reinspect and are satisfied it complies. If neither applies, the notice has to go out.
The notice is not a soft warning you can hold back to give the owner a chance. It is a legal step, and the clock on it starts from the inspection, not from when you get back to the office. That is the first reason to complete it at the pool rather than days later.
Who fills out a Form 26?
Form 26 is completed by the licensed pool safety inspector who carried out the inspection. Your name, licence number, and signature go on the statement, and that is you standing behind the finding that the pool does not comply. A general building or plumbing licence does not authorise this. Pool safety inspecting is a separate licence held under the QBCC, and only a licensed inspector can issue the certificate or the nonconformity notice.
The pools this applies to are regulated pools under Queensland law, which broadly means pools capable of holding a depth of water where young children need to be kept out, including in-ground and above-ground pools and many spas. The standard they are measured against is the pool safety standard in Queensland Development Code MP 3.4, which sets the requirements for barriers, gates, non-climbable zones, and latching. MP 3.4 references Australian Standards AS 1926.1 and AS 1926.2 with Queensland modifications. When you write that a pool does not comply, you are writing that it fails a specific requirement of that standard, so knowing the clause you are relying on matters before you fill the field.
Owner and property details
The notice opens with who owns the pool and where it is. The owner or owners' full name goes first, then the property.
Owner name. The full name of the pool owner or owners. This is the person the notice is given to and the person who carries the obligation to fix the pool, so it needs to match the owner on record, not just the person who happened to open the gate.
Property address. The street address of the property where the pool is located.
Lot and plan details. The lot on plan description for the property, which is what ties the notice to the parcel rather than a postal address that could be shared or renumbered.
Local government area. The council area the property sits in. This matters because the local government is who you have to notify if the owner lets the reinspection period lapse, so the right council needs to be on the notice from the start.
Getting these right is what lets the notice be matched to the property later, whether that is by the owner arranging repairs, a new inspector after the period ends, or the council following up a lapsed pool.
Pool type: shared or non-shared
Form 26 asks whether the pool is a shared pool or a non-shared pool, and it is not a throwaway field. A non-shared pool serves a single dwelling, the typical suburban backyard. A shared pool serves more than one dwelling or premises, such as a pool in a unit complex, a resort, a caravan park, or a hotel.
The distinction changes who the responsibilities sit with and how the safety management obligations run, so record it accurately. If you are inspecting a body corporate pool, it is a shared pool even though one owner or manager is dealing with you on the day.
Non-compliance: how the pool fails the standard
This is the heart of the notice. Section 246AB requires the notice to state the ways in which the pool does not comply with the pool safety standard. Vague wording here is what causes the disputes, because the owner cannot fix what they cannot understand.
Write each fault against the standard, not as a general impression.
Common findings that land on a Form 26 include gates that do not self-close or self-latch, a latch mounted below the required height, gaps under or between barriers that exceed the allowance, climbable objects inside the non-climbable zone, and barrier sections that are not the required height or have lost rigidity.
List every fault you found, not just the first one. An owner who fixes the one thing you wrote down, then fails the reinspection on a second fault you saw but did not record, is going to be filthy, and rightly so. The point of the notice is that a complete list lets the pool be brought to standard in one round.
Required action to make it comply
Alongside each non-compliance the notice records what has to be done to make the pool comply. This is the owner's to-do list and the benchmark you will measure against at reinspection.
Keep the action tied to the fault. If the gate does not latch, the action is to adjust or replace the latching mechanism so the gate self-latches from any open position. If a pot plant sits inside the non-climbable zone, the action is to remove the climbable object from the zone. The clearer the pairing between the fault and the fix, the more likely the pool is ready when you come back, and the fewer trips everyone makes.
You are not designing the repair for the owner, and you are not the tradesperson who has to carry it out. You are stating what standard the finished barrier has to meet. Leave the owner room to engage a fencing contractor or do minor work themselves, but be specific enough that "done" is not a matter of opinion.
Inspection date and inspector statement
The last part of the notice is the date of inspection and your statement as the inspector.
Inspection date. The date you carried out the inspection. This is the date the 2 business day issue window and the 3 month reinspection period are measured from, so it has to be right.
Inspector statement. Your name as the licensed pool safety inspector, your pool safety inspector licence number, your signature, and the date you signed the notice. This is the declaration that you inspected the pool and found it does not comply. It should only go on once the non-compliance and required action are complete and correct, because it is the part that makes the document a formal notice.
The timeframes that run from the notice
Once the owner has the Form 26, several clocks are running, and they are worth setting out for the owner so there are no surprises.
2 business days
To give the owner the notice
After the inspection, under section 246AB of the Building Act 1975.
3 months
Owner's reinspection period
From the day the notice is given. No other inspector can certify the pool inside it.
5 business days
To reinspect once asked
Or later if you and the owner agree.
20 business days
To appeal to the Development Tribunal
From the day the notice is given.
The owner has a reinspection period of 3 months from the day the notice is given. Within that period they can ask you, the same inspector, to reinspect the pool. If they do ask during the period, you must carry out the reinspection within 5 business days, or later if you both agree. If the pool passes the reinspection, you can then issue the pool safety certificate.
Two things bite if the owner lets the period slide. First, they cannot ask a different inspector to inspect the pool and give a certificate within 3 months of the nonconformity notice, and fines apply for trying. Second, if they do not ask for a reinspection within the 3 months, you must notify the local government, and the council can fine the owner for having a non-compliant pool. An owner who disagrees with your finding is not stuck with it either. They can appeal the decision in the notice to the Development Tribunal, and that appeal has to be made within 20 business days of the notice being given.
None of this is yours to enforce, but a good notice makes the consequences plain so the owner acts inside the window rather than after it.
How Tradie Forms helps
Tradie Forms turns Form 26 into sections you work through one at a time that follow the order of the official QBCC notice. You work through the owner and property details, the lot and plan and local government area, the shared or non-shared pool type, then the non-compliance and the matching required action, and finish with the inspection date and your inspector statement.
Your licence and business details are saved and reused, so your inspector name and licence number are not retyped on every notice you write. The form flags missing fields before you download, which is what catches a blank required action or an empty licence number before it becomes a disputed notice. You preview your entries mapped onto the official Form 26 PDF layout, then download the finished notice to give the owner and keep with the job.
Tradie Forms maps your entries onto the official layout. The licensed pool safety inspector still checks the inspection findings, the wording of the non-compliance and required action, and the downloaded PDF before it is given to the owner.
Start the QLD Form 26 pool safety nonconformity notice at the pool, or browse more QLD building forms for the rest of your Queensland paperwork.
For the field pack and the owner conversation, see Form 26 day.
Official references
Check the QBCC Form 26 pool safety nonconformity notice page for the current form, QBCC inspect and certify a pool for the notice, reinspection, and appeal process, and section 246AB of the Building Act 1975 for the legal requirements. The Business Queensland pool safety forms page lists the pool safety forms, and Queensland Development Code MP 3.4 sets the pool safety standard. Confirm the current standard and your pool safety inspector licence conditions before you issue a notice.
