$280 a Week, a 92-Lot Subdivision and a Church Landlord: A Brisbane Couple Faces Eviction

• The Uniting Church bought a 21-hectare site at Mitchelton, Brisbane, for $3.5 million in 2020 and plans a 92-lot subdivision.
• Michael Guettler and Maria Hall, who once lived in their car for six months, rent a former farmhouse on the site for $280 a week.
• The church sought secrecy orders and closed hearings; the Queensland tribunal refused both.
• A warrant of possession was granted on May 26, 2025.

A church that is also a property developer has found itself in an uncomfortable position with its own tenants. ABC News reported that the Uniting Church tried to limit media coverage of its move to evict a formerly homeless couple from a house it owns in Brisbane.

The house is a former farmhouse in Mitchelton, part of a 21-hectare site the Uniting Church bought for $3.5 million in 2020. The church plans a 92-lot residential subdivision there; the report put the median house price in the area at $1.23 million. Michael Guettler, a disability pensioner, and Maria Hall lived in their car for six months before renting the property in 2022. They pay $280 a week and faced eviction in July 2025.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal refused the church’s requests for secrecy orders and closed hearings, and granted a warrant of possession on May 26, 2025. The property agent, Grants Real Estate, had argued that “the landlord does not want this QCAT case to affect the outcome of the development application.” Guettler said: “They wanted us to simply pack up our things and go away.” He disputed the church’s claim that it had offered relocation assistance.

ABC News reported that the Uniting Church Property Trust holds about $400 million in assets and recently sold a Brisbane office building for $48 million.

Churches that own houses and land are landlords as well as places of worship, and tenants will judge them by both standards. In Jamaica, many churches rent out houses, shops or land, and some are considering housing developments of their own. Those plans are more likely to succeed if tenants are treated with care, given proper notice and helped to move where possible. For renters in church-owned property, it is worth knowing that a planned development can end a tenancy, and asking about the landlord’s plans before signing.

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