Q When a management agent of a condominium receives a complaint from a homeowner  about another homeowner, is management allowed to tell the homeowner the name  of the complaint? Is this ethical and is there a real estate rule about how  managers are supposed to respond that is standard procedure?  

 —A Matter of Trust  

A “Management companies often learn about rule violations through the complaints  that they receive from the residents that live within the communities that they  manage,” says Matt Zifrony, director of the Fort Lauderdale-based law firm Tripp Scott. “Management companies are simply not capable of discovering every rule violation  on their own. Although there’s nothing that prevents a management company from sharing the name of the  complaining resident with the resident that’s alleged to have violated a rule, and doing so will inevitably create friction  amongst the residents. This will likely result in the management company  receiving fewer complaints, which will allow for more rule violations to go  undiscovered. With the foregoing in mind, every association should enact a  policy as to how they deal with rule violations.In just about all cases, that policy should include a commitment on the  association’s part to maintain the confidentiality of any unit owner that it receives a  complaint from.”      n