You do not need a building consent to remove or demolish an outdoor residential swimming pool on your property – refer exemption 30 of Schedule 1 of the Building Act 2004.

Before undertaking any work, we recommend you contact Council’s duty planner to ensure that any backfill complies with the earthworks rules specific to your living zone in the Selwyn District Plan.

If you want to the keep the pool and backfill it with compacted fill

  • place a hole into the pool to allow any water to drain away, and
  • we recommend you engage a professional engineer to conduct a geotech site investigation report and certify any compacted fill.

You must contact Council to:

  • advise you are removing your pool so that we can remove it off our pool register, and
  • provide photos in an email that clearly show the pool before and after its removal.

You can also file a record of exempt building work to Council to be placed on your property file so that future owners are aware of the work.