Registering a Community Swimming Pool in Fuerteventura

Does anyone have any info about the pros and cons of registering a community swimming pool with the island government please?

As in............

Is it a legal requirement and mandatory?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being registered or unregistered?

Any help much appreciated.

Audrey

This message was last edited by On a mission ! on 12/09/2012.

Are you saying that your community has a pool but that you don't have a licence for it?

If so, the main issue you'll face is that if ever there was a major accident in the pool, the community/ president could be in serious trouble.

 Interesting advice Justin, as a new Community President , I personally have never seen a pool licence and despite asking on numerous occassions about public liability or injury in pools after advertised opening time with no response, I really must press the Administrator on this issue.

Yeah, you have to be careful as it can be very serious.

When I was president of our community I discovered that although we'd been using the pool for a couple of years, we didn't actually have the opening licence for it.  It meant that the regular checks by the town hall to ensure it complies with all regulations weren't being carried out and so the community, and me personally, were liable should anything go wrong.

I thought about closing the pool off but that could have meant the end of my life, so I put a big sign up saying "This pool has no licence.  Swim in it at your own risk." I then worked on getting the licence which took a couple of months, and a bit of money, but after that at least there was peace of mind.

 Justin

I am beginning to think that many Administrators treat Presidents as pure figure heads, almost too dumb to understand the law and regulations. You have to ask for everything.

Can I ask if having a licence, which I am pretty sure we do, but still awaiting confirmation, does indeed offer some public liability insurance, should injury, illness or worse occur in licensed pools?

For sure, as president you have to ask everything.  Most administrators don't actually know a community that well and don't always check everything is in order.  That's why we're on our fourth!

In terms of insurance, once ours got the licence our community insurance included public liability for the pool.

Thanks very much for your replies and info !

I suspect that our pool (which has been in use for about 14 years!!!) has never had a licence and the recent round of new health and safety regulations has brought it to light. Although recently the perimeter wall has been raised in height and the entire area gated,  I would guess that the community's insurance company have probably raised the issue and caused a panic !

It's our AGM tonight, so hopefully I'll get to the bottom of it !

 Interesting comments on swimming pool licences.

The first step is the swimming pool is on a different licence for planning permission from the properties built around it. ( In the cases of houses demolished for illegal build reasons you will see the swimming pool is left untouched for this reason)( The local town hall can also proceed with a seperate case against  swimming pools constructed illegally). The next step as with any place of activity that is visited by the public in Spain is to acquire a licence for the same from the local town hall. It is a fairly straight forward process but as ever comes with a application fee.

Operating without one can impair the public liability insurance of the community against  accident claims so it is very advisable that both are in good order.

Finally; not all administrators are the same .

F.Parkinson . Administrator

 Firstly, my apologies Jacksonadmin, you are quite correct all Administrators should not be tarred with the same brush, it can however be quite difficult to sort good from bad at times. I, as a newby at this job, for one appreciate your input on this Forum.

Secondly, interestingly my response re our pools suggests that the Region of Murcia have still not managed to agree licence or regulation of Community Pools after 6 years of discussion............................................................................................

First of all, we consider very important to contextualise the scenario of the pools and its legislation in the Región de Murcia.

As we have already stated, Región de Murcia is currently regulated by the Rules of the Régimen Técnico Sanitario of swimming pools from Murcia , 1989, replaced by the Decree 58/1992. The problem is that the swimming pools belonging to Communities of Owners are excluded of their scope.

The Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia affirmed six years ago that they wanted to reform that Rule to extend the legal coverage to swimming pools belonging to Owners Communities that exceed a number of residents.

The problem that the “Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia ” has found is that they are still awaiting the reform to be approved at state level  from theMinisterio de Sanidad, and this is still in  draft form.

Therefore, it does not exist a legislation. That is the reason why the Community is not obliged, for example, to contract a lifeguard.

........................................................................................................................

 Thank you for your kind comment firstly.

Very interesting your information posted & not too surprising given the time matters take here in regional goverment .

I wonder with interest how the Murcia regional goverment are going to make us all aware of their desicion in this matter ultimately in order for us to comply with the same.It is possible they could trace each community of owners via their nie number but this would not give them the number of owners .

Regards

F.Parkinson Administradore