Everyone loves a swimming pool, and adding or managing a swimming pool in the apartment complexes you operate can be a big draw for tenants. You also need to consider–or refresh your memory–the steps you can take as a property manager to keep everyone using your pool facilities safe. That means establishing and governing a set of pool rules for apartments that give residents and their guests the freedom to enjoy themselves safely.
Perhaps the one general rule about apartment pool laws and regulations is that they are different everywhere.
Especially if you operate and manage apartments with pools in multiple states, or even municipalities, the first thing you will want to do is establish an annual practice of reviewing regulations. Not only are they different everywhere, but they are also frequently updated to reflect the latest safety standards, practices, and technology, so it’s best to add an annual refresher to your list of pool maintenance tasks. This is the perfect thing to do during the winter months, when many apartment pools are either closed for the season or quieter.
This also includes determining if the apartment pools you manage are regulated as public pools. It’s becoming increasingly common for apartment and condominium pools to be legally defined as public pools.
For example, the Florida Department of Health defines a public swimming pool as “...a conventional pool, spa-type pool, wading pool, special purpose pool, or water recreation attraction, to which admission may be gained with or without payment of a fee and includes, but is not limited to, pools operated by or serving camps, churches, cities, counties, day care centers, group home facilities for eight or more clients, health spas, institutions, parks, state agencies, schools, subdivisions, or the cooperative living-type projects of five or more living units, such as apartments, boarding houses, hotels, mobile home parks, motels, recreational vehicle parks, and townhouses.”
Once you’ve established how your apartment pools are governed, you can then start to categorize the regulations you must adhere to, which can include rules that apply to lighting, enclosures, drain covers, safety provisions, and more.
Apartment pools should have a fenced-in enclosure that is at least 4 feet tall, with self-closing and self-latching gates. Make frequent checks to ensure the integrity of the enclosure, closing off any potential gaps or spots where older children could climb or otherwise sneak in. You may also be required to install a door or gate alarm.
No matter how your pool is regulated, you want to make sure your pools are compliant with the federal Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act of 2007. Named after former Secretary of State James Baker’s granddaughter who was killed in 2003, when the suction from a hot tub drain caused her to drown, this federal law requires pools and spas to install compliant anti-entrapment drain covers in order to prevent accidents like this from happening.
Pool pumps with safety vacuum release systems have an automated safeguard that will either turn off the pump or inject air into it if it detects a change in pressure that could be caused by a body. This safeguard would then release the person from the vacuum suction, freeing them and helping to prevent drowning.
While it’s critical to ensure you have proper safety enclosures around your pool, you also need to balance this with the need to ensure pool accessibility. The FHA requires housing providers to make “reasonable accommodations” to enable access to pools for individuals with disabilities. If your pool is considered or regulated as a public space, this also means it must be compliant with the ADA.
You can find guidelines and resource materials for how to make your pool, spa, wading pool, or hot tub accessible to individuals with disabilities through the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. These requirements can include allowing service and assistance animals access to pool areas, or specific entry and exit requirements, determined by the size of the pool.
A set of clearly communicated and posted apartment pool rules keeps the pool clean and everyone in your community safe, while still allowing them to have fun. Here are some common pool rules for apartment complexes:
As you write or update your apartment pool rules, you want to be careful with wording–and in particular, with wording around age restrictions–so that you are balancing safety rules with the risk of discriminatory language. In some states, there have been legal cases that found blanket rules keeping children from using a pool to be overly restrictive. At the same time, drowning and injury is a real danger for children. Check your local laws and/or with your attorney, but some good rules to keep kids safe, while still allowing them to enjoy the pool, include:
If your apartment allows pets, especially dogs, it’s a good idea to establish a rule regarding pet pool use. It’s never a good idea to allow pets in the pool area–though you may consider having a pet swim day on the last day of the pool season, right before you close down the pool. This is a fun event for residents, but still sets the rule that at all other times, pets are not allowed–with the exception of service animals.
By adhering to these rules, everyone can have an enjoyable and safe time at the pool. If necessary, employ a security guard, manager, or pool attendant to enforce them.
Pool rules–and your residents’ respect for them–go a long way towards keeping the apartment pool experience safe and fun for everyone. However, they don’t eliminate every risk. There are a few more rules and best practices for safety every property manager should consider.
Even if you hire the bulk of your pool maintenance out, it’s still a good idea to have at least one–preferably, a couple–of your staff members certified as pool operators. This ensures you have someone readily available who knows not only how to reduce risks in and around water, but how to prevent drowning and other accidents, how to maintain and balance water chemistry, and how to adhere to regulations.
Inspect pool equipment, including pumps, drains, lighting, and heaters, twice annually. At the open and close of each season is a good cadence for outdoor pools, while indoor pool equipment can be checked every six months. Keep a logbook to track equipment status and inspection history.
Check your state regulations, but most require apartment pools to keep a phone, a life-saving device (i.e. flotation rings and reaching poles), and first-aid kits in the pool area at all times. Even if it’s not a requirement by law or regulation, your pool should have one–to keep guests safe and reduce risk to your business.
You may or may not be required to keep an AED (automated external defibrillator) unit in the pool area to treat cardiac emergencies. If you are, you need to also ensure it is maintained, up-to-date, and that you have trained and appointed people to use it when needed. If you’re required to keep lifeguards, an AED is also often required–though it can be a requirement even if you don’t have lifeguards.
Take regular inventory of these items, checking to ensure they are still functioning and haven’t been damaged, lost, or stolen.
Smaller pools may not always be required to keep a lifeguard on duty during open pool hours, but check your local laws and regulations. For example, New Jersey law requires community pools larger than 2,000 square feet (i.e. regulation lap pools) to keep at least 2 certified lifeguards on duty.
Even if it’s not a requirement, keeping lifeguards on duty is the safest option, and may make sense from a risk and liability perspective. If budgets prohibit this, you can look into hiring a pool attendant or gate guard.
If you do decide not to, you are required to post signage clearly stating “No lifeguard on duty” and require adult supervision for children under 18 at all times.
Maintaining clean, healthy water quality is one of the most important safety steps you’ll take when managing an apartment pool. This ensures pool water is sanitized and safe to swim in, as well as pH balanced to reduce risk of skin or eye irritation. Making the effort to stay on top of water quality also keeps residents happy and can help you reduce the amount, and cost, of chemicals you use, as well as damage to the pool that requires stringent remediation efforts.
How often you’re required to test your pool water will depend on your local or state requirements, and, typically, the size of your pool. In states that have recently updated their health code to define community pools as public, the requirements for pool testing were also often increased. Expect to test pool water at least once per day and record the chemical (free chlorine, bromine, and pH ) levels. You’ll likely also be required to record equipment readings, calibrations, and corrective actions–including any chemicals added and what amount.
If your team can not test the chemicals on a certain day, it’s best to keep the pool closed. Chemical levels that are too low can potentially spread disease and make bathers sick. Automation equipment balancing pool chemicals can fail potentially adding too much chemical into the water sending people to the hospital or worse. The only way to tell is to test the water chemicals manually.
Just like other public pools, you will need to keep and maintain pool records that will be examined by Health Inspectors. Any contaminations, such as fecal matter, must be responded to, addressed, and recorded, and you must have proof of that action.
Even if you employ a certified pool operator on staff, which we highly recommend, maintaining healthy water quality takes time, expertise, and some serious math skills. The Pool Shark H2O system takes the guesswork and complex math equations out of pool water testing and record keeping by doing it for you in minutes. And while paper pool records get wet, lost, and damaged, our app locks in results and adjustments automatically, helping you stay Health Department compliant with ease. As a property manager, the app will send you alerts when the pool needs attention, skipped testing, or issue–and you can check on pool records and testing from anywhere.