traceyB,
you must check with your local town building inspector. In addition to the fence thing, there are stringent electrical codes. Around here, you cannot have your pump plug less then 5 foot away from the pool. The pool must be grounded, the trench for the wiring must be 18" deep, you must have a special "round" plug on the pump, and the matching recepticle, It must be weatherproof, must be on a non recepticle GFCI, pump also must be grounded, you must have another gfci protected recepticle less then 20' but more then 10' away from your pool, etc,etc,etc.
It them must be inspected by an electrical inspector as well as your local building inspector.
If you have a deck, it must have a self closing locking gate or childproof ladder.. If the pool is attached to a deck off of the house with a sliding door, the sliding door must have a special self closing latch on it.....(an expensive and hard to find item). The is one guy from Pa who travels the east coast installing them......he is in demand.

If you are not code compliant, your insurance company will not protect you. If something bad happens, you can be sued without your insurance company there to help. A good liability policy is a smart idea.

as you can see, a visit to your local inspector must be the FIRST thing you do before buying a pool.

Frank D.