The short answer
Check the dates, sample and payment definitions before using a rental survey. Build a monthly record from your own ledger without treating a percentage as a legal decision.
On this page
Separate the archive period from publication
A report about rent paid in 2020 describes that collection period, even if its page was updated later. Record the months measured, the survey field dates, the publication date and any revision date. A later edit does not turn an old result into a current payment benchmark.
This is a written method guide with a 2020 archive topic and an accurate current publication date. Rentari does not claim to have conducted an original pandemic-era landlord survey or collected another platform's historical results.
Ask who actually answered
Find the number invited, number responding, eligibility rules and recruitment method. Invitations are not completed answers. Note whether the sample represents customers of one platform, volunteers, individual landlords or rental households. Without the relevant method, do not describe it as a representative survey of all renters.
Keep subgroup counts visible for each state and portfolio-size group. A small group can produce a large-looking percentage. Missing answers, changing participants and different geographic coverage can affect a comparison; they should not be silently converted into zero payments.
Define full, partial and no payment
Specify the amount due, reporting month and observation cutoff. Was full payment received by the due date, by month-end or by the survey date? Does received mean settled funds, a pending transfer or the respondent's recollection? Separate rent from other charges and preserve the ledger's accounting basis.
Track a payment arrangement as a separate flag rather than automatically adding it to mutually exclusive full, partial and unpaid categories. A concession or canceled charge can change what is due; record its terms separately. Explain how refunds, reversals, credits, vacancies and missing records enter the calculation.
Choose the denominator before calculating
A percentage of landlords who received all rent is different from a percentage of occupied units that paid in full or a percentage of dollars collected. One landlord may operate many homes. Label the reporting unit and the eligible denominator rather than switching between them.
For an arithmetic example only, 20 paid-in-full units out of 25 eligible units equal 80 percent. If 18 of those same 25 are full in the next period, the result is 72 percent, a decline of eight percentage points. The relative decline is 10 percent. These are invented arithmetic inputs, not Rentari findings or a forecast.
Compare like periods and resolve contradictions
Use the same population, cutoff and definitions for both months. Keep raw counts beside percentages and identify any changed sample. Compare matched groups separately if the available properties or respondents changed. Do not add rounded percentages and assume they explain every response.
If a headline, paragraph and chart disagree, preserve the discrepancy and check the underlying table or ask the publisher for clarification. Do not silently choose the number that supports a preferred story. A reported association with a disruption does not alone establish its cause.
Keep survey evidence separate from tenancy action
An answer about wanting to evict is different from a notice served, a case filed, a judgment or a completed possession process. Count those stages separately only when the records support them. An old reference to a moratorium does not establish today's rule for a particular rental.
Check the current property's requirements and the actual agreement before a notice, charge or tenancy decision. A payment-status report does not authorize lock changes, service cuts or an automatic screening decision. Process changes reported by survey respondents are not evidence that stricter criteria are lawful or improve outcomes.
Build a monthly record you can explain
Download monthly rent observation worksheet (CSV)
Use your own ledger to fill the period, cutoff, eligible units, full, partial, unpaid and unknown counts. Record arrangements and credits separately, along with definitions and corrections. Reconcile category counts to the eligible total before calculating a rate. Keep resident-level evidence in the protected operational record; this aggregate worksheet does not need names, identity documents or health details.
Review unresolved entries before reporting, retain the source and explain any restatement. Use the result to investigate workflow questions, such as a delayed settlement or an unclear payment instruction, while reviewing each tenancy on its actual facts.
Use published research with its own method
The Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey technical documentation provides questionnaires, methods, source-and-accuracy statements and user notes for its releases. Read the documents for the particular period and measure before making a comparison. Those research estimates have their own population and definitions; they are not a substitute for your property's ledger.
Report what is known, what is missing and what action will verify it. Do not publish a historical chart, customer result or platform-wide benchmark without the underlying evidence and permission to use it.
Sources and further reading
Keep learning
Archive years group longstanding rental topics. This Rentari guide was published on 2026-10-03.
Written and maintained by the Rentari team. Examples explain a decision; they are not customer results. Found an error or an unclear step? Send a correction with this page's address and the detail to review.
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