This notice is issued pursuant to section 162E(2) of the Building Act 2004 (“Act”) and approves the form of notices that must be provided by a person who manufactures, sells or offers for sale in New Zealand any new product that is designed to be used for swimming, wading, paddling or bathing (other than an ordinary home bath), with a maximum depth of 400mm or more.

Notice

1. Title—This notice is the Building (Pool Manufacturers and Retailers) Notice 2025.

2. Commencement—This notice commences on 28 March 2025.

3. Application—This notice applies to a person who manufactures, sells, or offers for sale in New Zealand any new product that is designed to be used for swimming, wading, paddling, or bathing, other than an ordinary home bath, with a depth of 400mm or more.

4. Revocation—The Building (Pool Manufacturers and Retailers) Notice 2017, made pursuant to section 162E(2) of the Act and published in the New Zealand Gazette, 2 March 2017, Issue No. 22, Notice No. 2017-go984, is hereby revoked on 28 September 2026.

5. Interpretation—In this notice, unless the context requires otherwise:

Act means the Building Act 2004.

pool and small heated pool have the same meaning as in section 7 of the Act.

safety yellow means any of the following colours:

1. RGB EAA210 (Red 234, Green 162, Blue 16);
2. Standard BS 5252 colour number 08 E 51; or
3. Standard DIN 5381 or DIN 6164 2.5: 6.5: 1.

For further information on the colours see Acceptable Solution F8/AS1: https://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/f-safety-of-users/f8-signs.

6. Approved form—A notice that complies with clauses 7 – 9 of this notice is the approved form of notices for the purposes of section 162E(2) of the Act.

7. Warning message—

(1) A notice supplied with a pool that is sold either with or without retail packaging, other than a small heated pool, must contain the following warning message:

WARNING: CHILDREN MAY DROWN IN THIS POOL. To keep your family safe and prevent drowning, this pool requires a barrier to surround the entire pool, such as a 1.2m high fence. The barrier must comply with the Building Code and restrict unsupervised access by children under 5 years of age.

For more information visit www.building.govt.nz/poolsafety

For more information on how to keep safe in the water visit: https://www.watersafetynz.org

(2) A notice supplied with a small heated pool must contain the following warning message:

WARNING: CHILDREN MAY DROWN IN THIS POOL.

To keep your family safe and prevent drowning, this pool requires a barrier such as a:

• Fence or barrier to surround the entire pool, such as a 1.2m high fence; or
• Safety Cover that covers the pool. A safety cover may ONLY be used if the top surface of every pool wall is at least 760mm above the ground AND the walls of the pool inhibit climbing (e.g. there are no fixed objects or projections or a side-mounted pump).

The barrier must comply with the Building Code and restrict unsupervised access by children under 5 years of age.

For more information visit www.building.govt.nz/poolsafety

For more information on how to keep safe in the water visit: https://www.watersafetynz.org

8. Placement of notice—

(1) A notice supplied with a pool that has retail packaging, other than a small heated pool, must be either printed or permanently affixed to the front of the retail packaging.

(2) A notice supplied with a small heated pool, and a notice supplied with a pool that does not have retail packaging must be affixed to the pool so that it remains in place and remains legible until the consumer has received that pool.

(3) Where a pool or a small heated pool has been advertised, transacted and shipped within New Zealand, the notice must also be displayed on the webpage for that pool or small heated pool.

9. Typography of notice—

(1) The statements contained in clause 7 of this notice must be in:

1. letters not less than:
1. for “WARNING: CHILDREN MAY DROWN IN THIS POOL.”: a minimum of 10mm high;
2. for the other words: a minimum of 6mm high; and
3. for both (i) and (ii): be of a thickness between 15% and 30% of their height.
2. the font Helvetica, Univers Pro, Frutiger, Silas Sans, Rotis Sans, Bookman, Arial and other fonts with at least equal readability; and
3. the colour black; and
4. upper-case and lower-case letters as the text of the statements contained in clause 7.

(2) The background of the notice must extend at least 10mm beyond the letters in all directions and must be white or safety yellow.

(3) Only the statements contained in clause 7 of this notice may be on the notice.

Dated at Wellington this 18th day of March 2025.

DAVID HALL, General Manager (Building System Performance), Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (acting under delegated authority).

Explanatory note

This note is for explanatory purposes only.

This notice, which comes into force on 28 March 2025, sets out the form of notices to be supplied with any new product that is designed to be used for swimming, wading, paddling or bathing, other than an ordinary home bath.

This notice revokes the form The Building (Pool Manufacturers and Retailers) Notice 2017 on 28 September 2026 providing a period of 18 months where the form of both notices is approved. This transition period is provided to allow sufficient time for pool manufacturers and retailers to adopt the form of the 2025 notice.

These notices must be supplied by persons who manufacture, sell or offer for sale these products in New Zealand.

Section 162E(2) of the Building Act 2004 provides that the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment may, by notice in the New Zealand Gazette, approve the form of these notices.