The SPPAPool professionals and technicians should be licensed and trained, especially when repairing things like heaters, pool lights and plumbing. As a pool professional, it is your job to keep your customers safe. Not being properly educated and licensed could put lives in danger.
Daily, trained pool professionals and contractors are dealing with dangerous elements like chemicals, empty holes when pools are drained, gas, carbon monoxide, electricity and water. This is serious stuff. People think it’s just a pool, but in order to make these pools swimmable and safe, pool professionals and contractors need to know the appropriate codes. There is a reason why those codes exist and are enforced.
It is so important for pool pros to be safe, educated and professional. As an insurance broker, I’ve seen several claims and lawsuits in the pool industry. Some of these from pool professionals not being safe.
In 1994, a professional tennis player visited a friend’s home in Southampton, Long Island. An improperly installed pool heater caused carbon monoxide gas to seep into the guesthouse where he was sleeping. He died at age 40 due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
In one case, a 7-year-old boy was electrocuted by a faulty pool light while swimming in his family’s backyard pool (the family sued the company that installed the pool and light).
In another incident, caught on video, several children swimming in an apartment complex pool were electrocuted by a pool pump that wasn’t properly grounded.
If you have an electrical problem at a pool and you are not qualified or don’t know swimming pool electrical codes in your area, don’t touch it. Get a qualified technician to the customer’s home to troubleshoot and fix the issue. If you subcontract the work, be sure the subcontractor has the proper license and is insured. Also have the subcontractor list you as additional insured on his policy. This goes for all subcontractors. You want to be listed as additional insured as a certificate holder whenever you subcontract any work. In the event of a claim, if you are not listed as an additional insured, the claim may fall under your policy.
As safe and careful as you think you are being, you cannot guarantee an accident can’t happen due to you or your employee’s negligence. That’s why you should not only be safe, but also have general liability insurance to back you up.
