What are the electrical rules around a swimming pool or spa?

Water plus electricity plus bare skin is the worst combination in domestic electrical work, so the wiring rules treat the area around a pool or spa as a special location with mapped zones. Distance from the water, and height above it, decide what equipment may be installed and what protection it needs.

The recurring requirements

• Residual current protection on every circuit serving pool or spa equipment.
• Equipment with an ingress protection rating suited to the zone it sits in.
• Equipotential bonding, which ties metal items such as ladders, handrails, reinforcement and pump housings to the same electrical potential so no voltage can appear between them.
• Socket outlets kept out of the closest zones entirely.

Why this comes up at sale

Pool electrical defects turn up regularly in pre-sale inspections, usually where a pump has been replaced by whoever was available and the bonding was not reinstated, or where a socket was added to run a robotic cleaner. Both are cheap to fix when found and serious when not.