A Queensland body corporate Adjudicator draws the line between an “improvement” and a “disposal” of common property: Sun Lagoon [2026] QBCCMCmr 253
Every body corporate has, at some point, faced a version of this problem: one owner wants to do something to the common property that benefits their own lot. A deck. A garden bed. In this case, pavers. The other owners are quick to ask the obvious question — is body corporate approval needed, and if so, at what level? Approval can vary from a simple committee resolution on the one hand, all the way to a resolution without dissent at a general meeting. This recent decision from the Adjudicator Ananda helps lot owners and committee members find the line between improving and disposing of common property.
What was the dispute about?
Sun Lagoon is a 30-lot scheme at Noosa Heads. The owner of Lot 9 wanted to remove a roughly 3 by 3 square metre section of grass and garden on common property next to the back (sliding) door of their lot, and lay pavers in its place, matching paving that the owners of the neighbouring Lots 8 and 10 had been allowed to install back in 2011. The owner of Lot 9 (a related entity to the management rights operator) put forth a motion at the body corporate’s Annual General Meeting on 18 September 2025 (Motion 18A) asking the body corporate to approve the works as an “improvement to common property”, requiring only an ordinary resolution; that is, the motion passes with a simple majority.
The body corporate’s committee did not agree, and put forward a competing motion (Motion 18B) asking the lot owners to reject Lot 9’s proposal. The committee’s concerns were that the pavers would affect the visual amenity of the complex, would occupy a meaningful area of common property, and, in substance, would end up being used exclusively by Lot 9, even though no formal exclusive use right was being sought.
Another lot owner, Grant Hailes (the owner of Lot 29 and Chairperson), went further. He argued that removing grass, topsoil and a garden bed and replacing them with pavers was not merely an “improvement” at all, it was a disposal of common property; that being a de facto grant of exclusive use, or the grant of a licence for exclusive and indefinite use of the affected patch of turf and garden. Under the legislation, either of those things would require the highest level of owner approval available: a resolution without dissent, meaning that the approval motion would fail if even only one lot owner voted against it.
At the AGM, Motion 18A received 17 votes in favour and 12 against, which would easily carry as an ordinary resolution. The Chairperson however, ruled Motion 18A out of order, taking the view that the motion should have been put forward as a resolution without dissent. That ruling is what ended up before the Adjudicator, by virtue of Mr Hailes’ application to have Motion 18A declared invalid outright.
Why does the level of approval matter?
Queensland’s body corporate legislation scales the level of owner approval according to how seriously a proposal, and resultant decision on that proposal, affects everyone’s shared interest in the common property. Routine improvements that benefit one lot but leave everyone else’s rights untouched can generally proceed as either a committee resolution (depending on the value of the improvement) or as an ordinary resolution.
Anything that amounts to selling, disposing of, or granting a long-term lease or licence over common property sits in a different category, because it affects what every owner co-owns. Selling or otherwise disposing of common property, or granting a long-term lease or licence over common property, requires a resolution without dissent; all votes cast must be in favour, and just one (or more) votes against will cause the motion to fail.
So, the entire dispute turned on a single question of substance rather than form: irrespective of how the motion was worded, did laying pavers over that area of grass and garden amount to a disposal of common property, whether by a de facto grant of exclusive use, or the grant of an exclusive and indefinite licence? If yes, the ordinary resolution the owners of Lot 9 had put forward, and had actually won, was not good enough.
The competing arguments
Mr Hailes, the Chairperson who had ruled Motion 18A out of order, pointed to a line of earlier decisions to support his case. In Katsikalis v Body Corporate for “The Centre” [2009] QCA 77, the Queensland Court of Appeal found that the extension of an advertising hoarding into (previously unoccupied) common property air space amounted to a disposition of that space, because it excluded all other lot owners from using it, apparently for good. In Dansur v Body Corporate for Cairns Aquarius CTS 1439 & Anor [2022] QCATA 15, removing a section of common property masonry to enlarge a window was found to be a disposal. In Ainsworth & Ors v Albrecht & Anor [2016] HCA 40, the High Court dealt with a lot owner absorbing a small pocket of common property airspace into their own balconies (turning two small balconies into one large balcony). Again, this was treated as something that required a resolution without dissent. On Mr Hailes’ argument, digging up the grass, topsoil and garden bed, disposing of those things, and then replacing them with pavers, for the benefit of Lot 9, was no different.
The owners of Lot 9 (represented by Bugden Allen) argued the opposite. Nothing about the proposal excluded any owner, occupier or visitor. There would be no fence, no barrier, and no legal right for Lot 9 to stop another owner, occupier or visitor from walking across the paved area, sitting on it, or otherwise using it, just as they could when it was grass. In ancient common law parlance, none of their fellow lot owners were being ‘ousted’ from the affected area of common property. Further, and in any event, the works were, they said, materially the same as what the committee had already allowed the neighbouring Lots 8 and 10 to do, back in 2011. At an installed value under $3,000, the works arguably even qualified as a “minor improvement” under the regulation; a category that, if it applied, meant that only committee approval was required.
What the Adjudicator decided
Adjudicator Ananda dismissed Mr Hailes’ application, and found that Motion 18A only ever needed the ordinary resolution it was put forward as. Three points of reasoning from Adjudicator Ananda stand out.
- A “disposal” is narrower than simply changing or removing part of common property. The Adjudicator held that “disposal” in the legislation carries its everyday meaning of parting with property with some finality — closer to a sale, gift or transfer — rather than any physical alteration to common property. If digging up grass and topsoil counted as a disposal every time, a body corporate would technically need unanimous approval to mow the lawn, which cannot have been the legislature’s intention.
- There was no exclusion of other owners, in law or in fact. The critical difference from Katsikalis and Ainsworth was that those cases involved a physical or legal barrier; a rooftop hoarding and an enclosed balcony, that genuinely shut other owners out. Here, nothing stopped anyone else from walking onto, or using, the paved area once it was laid. Without that exclusion, there was no “disposal” and no licence for exclusive and indefinite use.
- There was no demonstrable loss to the other owners for Lot 9’s exclusive benefit. Citing Dansur, where enlarging a window changed the building’s façade to the exclusive benefit of one lot, the Adjudicator found no equivalent loss here. The pavers did not obstruct anyone’s view or access, and the area remained open to all.
On the basis of the Adjudicator’s analysis above, laying the pavers was simply an “improvement to common property for the benefit of the owner’s lot” under section 177 of the Accommodation Module. That is, the type of change that should be approved by committee resolution where it can be, and ordinary resolution if it must. Motion 18A had already cleared the higher of those two bars, with 17 votes in favour to 12 against, and the Chairperson (Mr Hailes) should not have ruled it out of order.
Why this decision matters
Ever since Dansur (actually spelled Danseur – the writer acted for that successful company in those proceedings) ‘nay sayers’ and NIMBY’s have used the Danseur decision to argue that almost any improvement to common property needs a resolution without dissent to authorise. In Sun Lagoon the learned Adjudicator went to some pains to identify, outline and analyse relevant common law, property law and body corporate legislation to reconcile, and ultimately make sense of, what appear to be competing authorities. For Adjudicator Ananda (and in our view, correctly) the decision in Danseur is authority for the proposition that:
‘…a disposal or disposition of common property was found to have occurred because (in a nutshell) there was a demonstrable loss to the members of the body corporate save the benefiting member (which it said must be greater than the loss of a negligible tangible thing such as bricks and mortar) in respect of the interest in common property, which was to the exclusive benefit of one member.’ at [100]
That is the take home message from Sun Lagoon and it is a message that will probably be repeated by Adjudicators for many years to come – since Danseur was handed down in 2022, it has been cited at least 21 times in Adjudications, often by applicants seeking a ‘silver bullet’ to stop another lot owner’s improvement to common property.
Bodies Corporate and committees can now easily explain, and apply, Danseur, which in turn should lead to better decisions on lot owner improvements, and less unnecessary disputation.
This article was first published on 13 August 2026. It was written by Michael Kleinschmidt, Legal Practitioner Director & Jade Marley, Solicitor all from our Sunshine Coast office.
© Bugden Allen Group Legal Pty Ltd. This is general information only and not legal advice. You should not rely on this information without seeking legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances.
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