Moved into a new development over the holidays and had a new house built. When looking at the development late last summer there was one home on a corner lot that had an in-ground swimming pool in the back yard that I assume was 7 foot plus deep since it had a diving board. We saw the owners swimming in it last August and were surprised that they had no fence or barrier of any kind around the pool. I figured it was new and a fence would soon follow.
I read our state laws and they indeed say you have to have a fence around in-ground pools even if they are empty.
Our friends who happen to live across the street from them didn’t want to call them out about it so I said I would gladly report them since it is a safety hazzard to anyone in the area with small kids.
I plan to call this spring if there is no sign that a fence wil be built.
Problem is I have no idea who to report them to. The police?
Call your local 311 or 411 or whatever it is there. I’m sure they get similar questions daily about whom to contact.
The name probably varies by location, but out here it’s called "Neighborhood Code Compliance.”
Call City Hall and ask.
I’d go with the Building Dept or whoever does permits in your area. If they don’t have a fence, there’s a fair chance they never even pulled a permit for the pool itself, since that’s one of the things the inspector would have checked when signing off on the permit.
Here there’s a Bylaws, Licenses and Permits department.
311 is the number to call.
Besides not getting a building permit, they probably never told the tax assessor about this property improvement. And they are very effeminately interested!
Effeminately interested?
Contact whatever you locale’s Zoning dept is called; zoning, building & codes, Licenses & Inspections, etc.
I’ve never seen 311 except for in a city. It’s a 10-digit # to town hall around here, then press x for y dept.
Auto-correct error. Should be definitely interested.
Are you saying there’s no fence at all … any three-year-old can walk in from the city sidewalk? … call today … how close is this to felony “reckless indifference to human life” in your area? …
If you live in a small enough city where all the government people know each other, you could just ask whoever answers the phone to point you in the right direction. In either case, it’s likely in the jurisdiction of the Building Inspector. That’s who I’d call or email.
Many of those people live to enforce code, so they’ll probably be happy to come out and take a look. If you’re confrontational enough, you can let them look from your backyard (knowing that the person will likely know you reported it).
Yes, and it’s a corner lot so the back yard is adjacent to the street. Street…3 feet of grass…sidewalk…10 feet of grass…pool edge
Oh no, that needs reporting today. Call the City or Municipal offices. Look in the yellow pages for Government: City of XX.
It’s not close at all in any area.
“Nuisance and problem properties” – Hennepin County Attorney …
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but have you ever considered minding your own business? People have had pools for 50 years before fences were required around them, and there wasn’t a rash of addle-minded three year olds walking into them and drowning.
There is a house on my street which has an “offical” looking yellow diamond sign that says “slow children at play”. Well, first of all they forgot the comma, and secondly it is YOUR responsibility to TEACH YOUR KIDS NOT TO PLAY IN THE STREET.
You’re correct. That is an unpopular opinion.
Toddlers wander into pools and drown just about everywhere. How would you like to find your kid dead in a swimming pool? Every possible deterrence is worth it.
Should we eliminate seat belts, air bags, metal detectors, x-rays, food inspectors? The list goes on.
What a ridiculous opinion.
Not unpopular, so much as useless. Fifty years ago we kids were always playing in the street. There wasn’t a rash of addle-minded three year olds getting mowed down, but it occasionally happened. On the other hand, swimming pool drownings are the number one cause of accidental death for children 1 to 4 in America. The guy is breaking the law in a dangerous way. He needs to be reported.
This is my mistake. I did not realize that there wasn’t even a fence around the property; I thought we were talking about the additional 4-foot fence that some municipalities now require around the pool in an otherwise secured back yard.
This random report (first one I found), shows that, of kids under 5 that drown 26.5 had a fence, 2% had a fence that could be accessed via a security card and nearly have of all drowning deaths of kids under 5 had no fence (or a non-compliant one) to secure the pool. Non-complaint meaning broken, gate propped open, easily claimable*etc.
That’s not always possible. My next door neighbor had a kid that drowned in a pool. IIRC the kid was only two years old. That’s a bit to young to teach them, well, much of anything, much less ‘stay out of the pool when no one is watching you’. Especially when it wasn’t at their own house so it’s not like the kid(s) grew up around it.
*Watching one of the Mike Holmes shows a while back I found it interesting that Canada building code requires fences to have vertical ‘posts’ instead of horizontal ones specifically to make it more difficult to climb. FTR, I just happened to hear Mike sat this and some quick googling semi-confirms this, at least for around pools, but I’m not going to vouch for it. It’s just one of those trivia tid-bits I picked up along the way.