Key takeaways for sellers
- Queensland is the strict one. Interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms have been mandatory on sale since 2022, and the pool certificate has to be in your Form 2 pack before the buyer signs. New South Wales and Victoria are lighter, but the pool rules still bite.
- You can sell with a non-compliant pool, but you can't ignore it. Queensland and New South Wales both let you pass rectification to the buyer via a notice, provided it's given properly and on time. Your barrier obligations and your council's powers don't go anywhere.
- Sort the pool certificate before you list, not after. Queensland needs a Form 23 or a Form 36 in your Form 2 pack before the buyer signs. New South Wales needs a certificate of compliance or non-compliance before settlement. Victoria needs your barrier compliance certificate lodged with council.
Do you need to upgrade your smoke alarms before selling?
Queensland is the one to pay attention to. Since 1 January 2022, any dwelling being sold must have interconnected photoelectric alarms meeting AS 3786:2014 — in every bedroom, in connecting hallways, and on every storey. Interconnected means when one sounds, they all sound. Ionisation alarms and standalone alarms don't qualify, and any alarm over ten years old has to be replaced.
You declare the position in the contract. Under the standard REIQ contract the seller has to install compliant alarms before settlement; if you don't, the buyer can claim an adjustment of 0.15% of the purchase price. There's no legal requirement for a compliance certificate, but a buyer's solicitor will usually want evidence.
Do it before you list. Sorting it out between contract and settlement is the version of this that goes badly.
New South Wales and Victoria require working smoke alarms in all residential properties, without Queensland's interconnected photoelectric mandate or its sale-specific obligation.
Worth noting for owner-occupiers everywhere in Queensland: from 1 January 2027 the same standard applies to every home, sold or not.
Do you need a pool safety certificate to sell?
| What you need | If you don't have it | |
|---|---|---|
| Queensland | A Pool Safety Certificate (Form 23), valid 2 years for a private pool, 1 year for a shared one. It's one of the prescribed certificates that goes with your Form 2 disclosure | A Form 36 notice of no pool safety certificate does the job instead — but it has to be in the Form 2 pack before the buyer signs. Leave it out and the buyer can terminate any time up to settlement. If a Form 36 is given, the buyer has 90 days from settlement to get a certificate |
| New South Wales | A certificate of compliance, or a relevant occupation certificate, before settlement | You can instead provide a certificate of non-compliance, which passes rectification to the buyer within 90 days of settlement. Settlement can't proceed without one or the other |
| Victoria | Registration with your council, and a barrier compliance certificate lodged with them. Re-inspected every four years | No sale-specific certificate is currently required, and the Section 32 doesn't have to disclose pool compliance — but the barrier obligation and council fines apply regardless |
Two things worth being clear about. The barrier has to be compliant at all times, whoever holds what certificate — a Form 36 doesn't protect you from your council. And for a shared pool in a strata scheme, obtaining the certificate is the body corporate's job, not yours.
Do you need to disclose cladding when selling an apartment?
Mostly an apartment issue rather than a house one, and it turns on the specific building rather than the state.
If your building has been identified as having combustible cladding, that can carry disclosure obligations to a buyer, and there may be a rectification program running. The information sits with your body corporate or owners corporation — building reports, cladding assessments, correspondence from the state body.
If you're selling an apartment, ask your body corporate what's on file and give it to your conveyancer early. It's the kind of thing that surfaces during the buyer's due diligence and stalls a sale if nobody's looked at it first.
What if it surfaces after you've signed?
It depends on what you promised. If you gave a Form 23 or a certificate of compliance and the barrier has since stopped complying, that's yours to fix. If you gave a Form 36 or a certificate of non-compliance, the buyer took it on knowingly and the rectification clock is theirs.
Smoke alarms in Queensland sit differently again — the contract obliges you to have compliant alarms installed by settlement, so a shortfall found late is a price adjustment rather than an argument.
Where it gets messy is anything not covered by a certificate either way. Then it's a negotiation, usually conducted at speed, close to settlement, with someone's removalists already booked.