QLD: Q&A Testing pool water for a body corporate building

This Q&A is about the requirements for testing pool water and maintaining common property for a body corporate building in Queensland.

Table of Contents:

• QUESTION: In QLD, is the pool maintenance operator at a strata complex required to be certified, qualified and or insured against any water born illnesses that arise due to their workmanship. Is the body corporate or pool maintenance operator liable if legal wrongs arise?
• QUESTION: Are there companies in Queensland that supply off-site residential caretaker services?
• QUESTION: What are the requirements for testing pool water for a body corporate building? I’m looking for some direction from the legislation or are there Australian Standards?

Question: In QLD, is the pool maintenance operator at a strata complex required to be certified, qualified and or insured against any water born illnesses that arise due to their workmanship. Is the body corporate or pool maintenance operator liable if legal wrongs arise?

Answer: Assuming the body corporate was doing all that it reasonably could and could evidence this, there would likely be minimal grounds to state they were negligent.

In QLD, a pool technician that services and maintains a swimming pool must be licensed appropriately with the QBCC. A pool technician is responsible for the maintenance of the pool, i.e. replacing broken equipment and adjusting and balancing chemicals.

All pool technicians, whether operating as sole traders or a company, must hold the appropriate licenses and public liability insurance to cover any accidental loss, injury or damages.

Note, general cleaners used to clean the pool area and scoop out leaves etc, are not required to hold a license class but should not be responsible for maintaining chemical balances.

Regarding liability arising from a waterborne illness, this scenario would be trickier to navigate and could vary from case to case.

Firstly, to bring on a public liability claim against the body corporate (the pool owner), an individual would need to prove, through a doctor’s diagnosis, that they acquired the waterborne illness and it was transmissible through swimming pools.

Many illnesses can be contracted from many environments available to the public, i.e. public bathrooms, shopping centres, schools and kindergartens.

This alone would be a very difficult stage of the claim to prove.

If the individual (and their legal advisor) does indeed believe they have a basis for a claim, they would usually sue the body corporate (the owner of the facility) and anyone else involved in maintaining it (such as the pool technician, caretaker, hotel operator, building manager etc.). This scattergun approach gives the individual the highest chance of a substantial settlement from each party’s insurance policy without needing to go to court.

At this point, the pool technician would likely present their cleaning regime, the historical chemical balances for the pool and the work they have done, indicating that they had done all that was necessary to keep the pool balanced as the facility owner engaged them to do.

It is important to understand that the chemical balance of a pool can change levels overnight in QLD, with tropical rains diluting the chemicals and PH balances changing from enough users entering with sunscreen.

If the claim does make it to court, the individual will need to be able to prove that the body corporate failed a duty of care (acted with negligence) to minimise the reasonably foreseeable risks of injury/illness. Again, this will be a very difficult threshold, particularly if the body corporate can show regular maintenance invoices, pool chemical purchases, and a pool cleaning regime suggesting they did all that was reasonably practicable to minimise risk to patrons.

The courts would need to consider the inherent risks we as individuals accept when we use a swimming pool, such as the risk of drowning or illness from swallowing chlorinated water and if we inherently accept the possibility of illness from using a shared pool.

Assuming the body corporate was doing all that it reasonably could and could evidence this, there would likely be minimal grounds to state they were negligent.

Dakota Panetta
Solutions in Engineering
E: dakotap@solutionsinengineering.com
P: 1300 136 036

This post appears in the August 2023 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

Question: Are there companies in Queensland that supply off-site residential caretaker services?

Are there companies that supply off-site residential caretaker services? Our current caretaker is an owner-occupier who has decided not to renew his agreement.

Our building has 18 owner-occupied lots with no management rights/caretaker arrangement and never has been.

It is highly unlikely that any other owner will wish to take on this role and the committee members are not keen to manage the building maintenance.

Answer: There are companies that offer facilities management services without being onsite caretakers.

Yes, there are companies that offer facilities management services without being onsite caretakers. Who you can contact might depend on your location and the type of service that you want, but a Google search should help you find someone. You should probably also ask your body corporate manager as they will likely have some contacts you can speak to. Take the time to write out a scope of works for what you want your caretaker to do and try and get quotes on that basis.

As your scheme is 18 lots you might want to think about how much assistance you really need. At that size of building, it might just be a few hours a week but that can depend on the scope of works. Does the work include cleaning and gardening or is it mostly minor site maintenance and meeting contractors?

Either way, this sounds like a good opportunity to consider your scheme and how it is running. You may be happy with the existing set up and want as much continuity as possible. Alternatively, this could be the time to shake things up a little and run your scheme in a different way. Perhaps you could send out a communication to owners about this and arrange a meeting to discuss.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #588.

Question: What are the requirements for testing pool water for a body corporate building? I’m looking for some direction from the legislation or are there Australian Standards?

Answer: Most body corporate pools will have an appointed company that carries out testing and maintenance. Speak to your contractor and ask them what process they undertake.

Queensland Health’s website – Pools, spas and other recreational water bodies states that:

‘There are no Queensland Government laws for water quality at public aquatic facilities (pools, spas, water parks etc) although, under the Public Health Act 2005, a public aquatic facility must not pose a public health risk.’

They have also produced an extensive factsheet: Water quality guidelines for public aquatic facilities.

The website also has a free risk assessment tool you can use to assess your pool as well as posters you can print around pool hygiene.

The quality of the water could also be subject to council regulation. We are aware of situations where the council has mandated that a pool must be tested on a regular basis and records kept onsite. Specific regulations may vary from council to council, so you would probably need to contact your individual council about this. Certainly, if you had a major concern that had been raised and ignored, you could bring the issue to the council’s attention.

Otherwise, most body corporate pools will have an appointed company that carries out testing and maintenance. Speak to your contractor and ask them what process they undertake.

And, if you are concerned about the quality of the pool water, then you can raise that issue with the Committee – perhaps send through a motion if you are not a Committee member – or look at changing contractors if you are in a position to do so.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in the March 2022 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

Have a question about testing pool water or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.

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This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.

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