What is a fixed price pool quote?

What does ‘fixed price’ legally mean on a pool contract?

Queensland's legislation does not define fixed price directly. It defines the opposite. Section 1 of Schedule 1B of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, as quoted by the QBCC, calls a contract cost plus when the amount the builder is to receive ‘cannot be accurately calculated when the contract is entered into, even if prime cost items and provisional sums are ignored’.

The last clause of that definition matters. A contract counts as fixed price if its price can be calculated once the allowances are set aside. So a pool contract carrying a $6,000 rock allowance and an $8,000 tile allowance is still, legally, a fixed price contract. The fixed part is everything outside those two lines.

A fixed price pool contract fixes the price of the work it describes. It does not fix the allowances inside it or anything it leaves out.

The two allowance types work differently, and each has its own page: what a prime cost item is (fittings you have not chosen yet) and what a provisional sum is (services that cannot be priced yet, like rock). If the whole price is open, you are looking at a different contract type. Should I sign a cost plus pool contract covers it, including why Victoria rules it out for a pool.

Where the fixed price has to appear, by law

There is a quick check on page one of the contract.

Queensland. The QBCC's guide to domestic building contracts summarises the required warranties. The contract price, ‘if a fixed amount, without allowances’, and a price change warning must be stated on the first page of the contract schedule. The warning sets out any contract terms that could make the price go up or down. If the price is not fixed, the schedule must state the method for calculating it, including any allowances.

New South Wales. Section 7 of the Home Building Act 1989 says that if the contract price is known, it ‘must be stated in a prominent position on the first page of the contract’. If the price is not known or may be varied, the contract must carry a warning to that effect with an explanation of the clause that allows the variation, ‘placed next to the price’.

Rule of thumb for both states: if page one shows a method instead of a number, you do not have a fixed price contract. If page one shows a number with a warning beside it, read the warning. It lists every way the number can move.

Once work starts, changes to the fixed scope are variations, and in Queensland they must be agreed in writing before the work is done. What a variation on a pool contract is covers the timing rules.

The 30% line: when a fixed price stops meaning much

The QBCC gives a threshold for this. Its guide to domestic building contracts says contracts with a high proportion of the price covered by allowances, ‘e.g. 30% or more’, carry added risk for owners, especially owners on a tight budget, because of the uncertainty about the final amount. It asks owners to check, before signing, what share of the price is fixed and what share is variable.

Worked example (illustrative figures, not a benchmark). Two quotes for the same pool:

• Quote A: $72,000. Allowances: tiles $5,000, lights $1,500, heater $4,000 (prime cost items), plus rock $6,000 and retaining $5,000 (provisional sums). Total allowances $21,500, or 29.9% of the price, just under the QBCC's 30% example.
• Quote B: $78,000. The tiles, lights and heater have been chosen and priced. One $6,000 rock provisional sum remains. Allowances are 7.7% of the price.

Quote A is $6,000 cheaper on paper. But nearly a third of its price can still move, and every prime cost item that moves carries markup and GST on top. The QBCC's own schedule example turns a $1,500 allowance into $1,815 with 10% markup and GST, and the markup rate is whatever your contract states. The comparison that matters is the fixed share of each quote, not the headline.

To work out your own figures, add up every prime cost item and provisional sum and divide by the contract price. For the other lines worth lining up side by side, see what differs between pool quotes.

Why whether your contract is fixed price affects your home warranty

This is where the label has real consequences in Queensland.

The QBCC's non-completion page sets out who can claim under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme when a builder cannot finish. One eligibility criterion is that ‘the contract was for a fixed price’. The QBCC's page on cost plus and construction management contracts is explicit: non-completion assistance ‘is not available to homeowners when cost plus or construction management contracts are used’.

There is a second link. The QBCC may pay you less on a non-completion claim if the contract was underquoted by more than 30%. Its own example is a $200,000 contract for work actually worth $270,000, where the claim is reduced by $70,000. A quote that is unrealistically low can reduce the insurance payout that is supposed to protect you if the builder fails.

For what the scheme covers on a pool, see the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme on a pool. Other states have their own thresholds, listed in builder's warranty insurance by state.

How to turn a ‘fixed price’ quote into a price that is actually fixed

Most of the variable parts of a pool quote can be fixed before you sign, if you do it in the right order.

1. Get the ground investigated first. In Queensland, section 31 of Schedule 1B requires the contractor to obtain foundations data, such as soil tests and contour surveys, before entering the contract. The QBCC says this is almost always required for an inground pool. A quote that says ‘subject to soil test’ is asking you to sign before that step is done. See whether you need a soil test before building a pool.
2. Choose your fittings before signing. Every tile, light and heater you choose and get priced is one less prime cost item that can move.
3. Keep only real unknowns as provisional sums, each with a rate. Rock is a genuine unknown. The rate that applies after the allowance runs out is what makes quotes comparable.
4. Get the scope in writing. The QBCC's pool-building guidance tells owners to confirm exactly what the price includes, such as fencing, surrounds and landscaping.
5. Check page one. You want a number, not a method.

Ask each builder to fix every line that can be priced and to put a rate on every line that cannot. A builder who does that has given you a fixed price quote in practice, not just in name.

Ask several builders the same questions so their answers can be compared. You can compare pool quotes from builders who work in your area, and why a pool cost more than the contract covers what happens when a quote was not fixed where it mattered.

Common questions

Sources

• QBCC — Cost plus and construction management contracts (QBCC Act Sch 1B s1 definition)
• QBCC — Domestic building contracts: information for owners and contractors (PDF)
• QBCC — New home construction contract, prime cost items schedule (PDF)
• QBCC — Home warranty for non-completion claims
• QBCC — Build a pool
• Home Building Act 1989 (NSW), section 7 — NSW Legislation

General information only, current at 2026-09-26. 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.