Can my neighbour object to my pool?

Victoria: the neighbour's role is narrower than almost anyone expects

Part 7 of the Building Act 1993 is titled Protection of adjoining property, and that title is the boundary of the role. It is not a general right to object to your pool. It is a process about whether the work you propose to do to protect their property is appropriate.

Section 84 requires notice of building work to be given. Section 85(1) then gives the adjoining owner, ‘not later than 14 days after service’ of the notice, exactly three options: give a notice agreeing to the proposed protection work; give a notice disagreeing with it; or give a notice requiring more information to enable the proposal to be considered by the relevant building surveyor.

Section 85(2) is the one that surprises people on both sides: an adjoining owner who fails to give a notice within the required time ‘is taken to have agreed to the proposed protection work’. Silence is not a holding position. It is consent.

If the adjoining owner does disagree, section 87 sends the matter to the relevant building surveyor, who must examine the proposal and determine its appropriateness. Section 87(3) then states that in determining the matter the surveyor ‘may make any inquiries he or she thinks fit but is not required to give any person a hearing’. Both owners must be given written notice of the determination.

The quotable version: in Victoria a neighbour gets a say about protection work, a deadline, and a determination — not a hearing and not a veto.

Our page on what protection work is on a pool build explains when it is triggered in the first place, which for pools is usually excavation close to a boundary.

What a neighbour can always do: look at the plans

Section 92 of the Building Act is short and worth knowing, because it is the provision most likely to be exercised.

It provides that at any time after notice of intention to commence building work has been given under that Part, the relevant building surveyor ‘must make available to the adjoining owner, on request, for inspection, without charge, any plans, drawings and specifications of the proposed building work’ in the surveyor's possession or control.

Two practical consequences:

• For the owner building the pool: assume the plans will be seen. That is a reason to have them right, not a reason to be defensive.
• For the adjoining owner: inspection is free and does not require a dispute. Asking to see the plans is not an objection and does not start one.

There is also an insurance provision sitting alongside. Section 93 requires the owner, before any protection work is commenced in respect of an adjoining property, to ensure a contract of insurance is in force against damage by the proposed protection work to the adjoining property and liabilities likely to be incurred to adjoining occupiers. That, rather than an objection right, is what actually protects the neighbour.

NSW: notified, but with no objection right on a complying development

NSW produces the outcome people find hardest to accept, because the neighbour receives a letter that looks like a consultation and is not one.

Many residential pools proceed as complying development, a fast-track pathway where a certifier checks the proposal against fixed standards. The NSW Planning Portal states the pool standard plainly: ‘The swimming pool waterline must be set back at least 1 metre from a side or rear boundary.’

On notification, the position is that the person with the benefit of the certificate must give at least 7 days notice of the intention to commence construction work to the occupier of each dwelling lot with a boundary within 20m of the development — and that these notification requirements are advisory; neighbours cannot lodge objections to the complying development certificate. There is also no right of appeal against the determination of, or a refusal to determine, an application for one.

The quotable version: in NSW a complying development notice tells your neighbour what is about to happen, not what they can stop.

Where a pool cannot meet the complying development standards, it goes to the council as a development application instead, and then the council's notification policy and submission rights apply. That is the route where an objection has somewhere to go. Our page on whether a pool needs council approval covers which pathway applies, and what to do if a council rejects a pool application covers the other side of it.

Queensland, and the fencing mechanism that applies everywhere

Queensland turns on the assessment category. Code-assessable development does not carry formal objection rights, although members of the public can still write to the local government and lobby councillors. Impact-assessable development does: the Development Assessment Rules provide a public notification period and a formal procedure for making a submission. Most domestic pools are dealt with as building work through a private certifier rather than as impact-assessable development, which is why the objection question usually does not arise.

Separately, and often confused with objecting to the pool, is the dividing fence. Where a boundary fence is to form part of a pool barrier, neighbourhood dispute legislation provides a notice of proposed fencing work — in Queensland, Form 39 — and a period during which the adjoining owner may apply to the tribunal. The neighbour's remedy there is an application about the fence, not an objection to the pool.

That distinction is the single most useful thing to hold onto in a neighbour dispute: the fence and the pool are different proceedings, with different decision-makers and different deadlines. Our page on whether a boundary fence can be the pool barrier covers the technical side of using a dividing fence as a barrier.

If a neighbour has raised a concern and you are not sure whether it has any formal standing, the fastest way to find out is to ask the council or the certifier which pathway your approval is on. And if you are still at the planning stage, get a quote that names the approval pathway and any protection work, so the question is answered before a notice arrives.

Common questions

Sources

• Building Act 1993 (Vic), authorised consolidation version 152, Part 7 — Protection of adjoining property
• NSW Planning Portal — swimming pools as complying development
• Queensland Law Handbook — opposing a development application

General information only, current at 2026-09-22. Pool rules differ by state and by council, and penalty amounts are updated regularly. Confirm your own obligations with your council or a registered inspector before acting.