Should Co-op and Condo Boards Reveal Covid-19 Cases?

Last week, the managing agent of an Upper Manhattan co-op sent out a notice that a resident had tested positive for coronavirus. The management company would not disclose where in the building the resident lives, or if the person used any building amenities before testing positive. Now the manager has sent out an updated notice, stating that he will no longer inform residents of reported cases in the building. Is it legal to withhold such critical information?

Co-op and condo boards and their property managers are not obligated to notify residents if someone in the building has tested positive for Covid-19, says the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times. In fact, federal medical privacy rules prohibit management from sharing more than the bare minimum. And while the city doesn’t prohibit management from sharing basic details, it doesn’t require buildings to share information, either. The city is not informing individual buildings when a resident tests positive. In the face of widespread community transmission, Health Department guidelines broadly state that “many people will get sick and recover at home. All New Yorkers should follow health guidance, take care of themselves, and assist and support their neighbors to help limit the spread of the virus.”

Yet many boards and property managers are informing tenants when they learn that someone in a building has tested positive for coronavirus. Doing so can keep the flow of information moving. Residents “should be informed of a known risk, whether the infected person is a staff person or a resident,” says Phyllis Weisberg, a partner at the law firm Armstrong Teasdale. She is is advising the co-op and condo boards she represents to disclose basic information about known cases.

The privacy rules do have a benefit for those who aren’t yet sick: If an infected resident knows that her condition will be kept confidential, she may be more willing to disclose it and ask for assistance so she doesn’t have to leave her apartment and risk spreading the virus. Midboro Management, which manages 140 residential properties in the city, is urging residents to confidentially disclose their diagnosis so that staff can make arrangements, like setting times to collect their trash outside the door and decontaminating the floor.

At this point, with well over 40,000 cases of coronavirus in New York City, you should operate on the assumption that the virus is in your building, including on surfaces you encounter as you go about your day, which is why you should reduce your contact with your neighbors as much as possible – even if you don't know for certain that one of them has tested positive.