Property Managers Must Allow Access for U.S. Census Workers

by | May 25, 2010 | Rental Property Management Tips

Census Takers to Follow Up with About 48 Million Households Nationwide

The U.S. Government Census Bureau has announced that about 635,000 2010 Census takers across the nation are now going door-to-door follow up with households that either didn’t mail back their 2010 Census form or didn’t receive one.

landlord tenantAn estimated 48 million addresses will be visited through July 10.

Some households will receive a visit even though they may have mailed back their form if the form arrived too late to be processed before nonresponse follow-up packets were dispersed.

After exhausting their efforts to do an in-person interview with a resident of an occupied housing unit, they will seek out proxy sources — a neighbor, a rental agent, a building manager or some other knowledgeable person familiar with the housing unit — to obtain as much basic information about the occupants as they can.

The Census bureau offers tips to verify that a person is a legitimate census taker:

  • The census taker must present an ID badge that contains a Department of Commerce watermark and expiration date. The census taker may also be carrying a black canvass bag with a Census Bureau logo.
  • The census taker will provide you with supervisor contact information and/or the local census office phone number for verification, if asked.
  • The census taker will only ask you the questions that appear on the 2010 Census form.
  • The 2010 Census taker will not ask for social security number, bank account number or credit card number and will never solicit for donations or contact you by e-mail.

The part-time, temporary census workers are hired from the communities they serve to obtain the remaining census responses. Census workers are your neighbors; they are familiar with the neighborhood and are working to ensure that it is accurately and completely represented.

In most cases, census workers will make up to six attempts at each housing unit address to count possible residents. This includes leaving notifications of the attempted visit at the house or apartment door, in addition to trying to reach the household by phone to conduct the interview or schedule an in-person interview.

There are just 10 questions on the form and it should only take about 10 minutes to complete.

If you have concerns about a 2010 Census home visit, you may call 301-763-3691 for more information.

This post is provided by Tenant Verification Services, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).

Click Here to Receive Landlord Credit Reports.

 

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.

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