Outer Banks Property Management

This is a serious request from the Dare County Association of Fire Officers. As you will see below one of the most overlooked maintenance items, pool gates are one of the most important items to check for routine maintenance. I know many Outer Banks property managers are quite vigilant in checking pool gates. This is for quite good reason. When you home offers a pool there becomes an increased level of responsibility. Perhaps the most important safety feature is self-locking pool gates. Below is the letter. It is worth taking a look at.

The Dare County Association of Fire Officers is a group comprised of senior level and Chief Officers from all fifteen of Dare County’s fire departments, Hatteras Island Rescue Squad, Dare County Fire Marshal’s Office and several associate organizations. One of our primary purposes is in the area of life safety, for both the public as well as our firefighters.

At a recent meeting, several Chiefs expressed their concern about locks on pool fence gates. The problem we are addressing is locks that are not maintained or do not work and the potential for a child to wander into a pool area and subsequently drown. Sadly, this has happened in the past in Dare and Currituck counties and literally only takes seconds to occur. Obviously, this happens most often in rental vacation homes. While doing some research it has been noted that after a home is given a final inspection of the pool area by building and health officials, there is no means to follow up to see if the required locks function properly after any period of time. Given that these properties are considered “one and two family dwellings” inspections are not required.

The DCAFO is requesting your assistance in getting the word out to as many of our local rental agencies as possible about this problem. It is our hope that the rental companies can have maintenance personnel inspect the gate locks and repair or replace them if needed. I would hope that potentially saving a young child’s life is motivation enough, but there is always an issue of liability if a death or injury occurs. Our Association also advocates installing pool alarms that may alert if a child falls into an unattended pool. Also, hot tub covers should be in place anytime the hot tub is not in use as there have been tragedies involving children in those too. Thank you in advance for the cooperation of the Outer Banks Association of Realtors in what we believe is an important issue. If I may be of any assistance, please contact me. My office number is 441-6234.

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