Can the OC Committee sequester and re-purpose common property?
Yes it can. My committees in Victoria do this fairly regularly.
But there are limits to what a committee can approve. Eg a committee can’t approve something that needs a Special or Unanimous vote of the OC. And it might have a spending limit.
Many changes to the use of common property pass all of the above. So it depends on what they are.
Of interest, it seems that s.52 and s.53 of the OC Act are more do with funding requirements rather than the actual works themselves. VCAT and strata lawyers have noted that the Special Resolution requirement only applies when an OC itself wants make “significant alteration” to common property. VCAT has ruled that S.52 and s.53 does not apply when it’s a lot owner that requests the “significant alteration” (although other parts of the Act and the OC rules will still apply). The reasoning seemingly being that it’s the lot owner that will be paying for that alteration.