If you run a solar business that still puts reps on the footpath, you have almost certainly had this conversation with a customer, or been asked about it by one of your own crew: does a “Do Not Knock” sticker on the front door actually mean anything, or is it just a homeowner having a whinge?

It is a fair question, and the honest answer is more useful than the one most people expect. The sticker itself is not a law. But the situation it creates sits right on top of some of the most enforced provisions in Australian Consumer Law, and getting the distinction wrong is how a good business ends up with a complaint file it did not need.

I have spent 17-plus years around solar sales, from PV sales in my first year in the trade through to representing suppliers and watching hundreds of install businesses run their sales processes well or badly. Door-to-door is one of the areas where the gap between “technically legal” and “actually smart” is the widest. Let me walk through where the legal line really sits.

What a “Do Not Knock” sticker actually is

Start with what it is not. There is no Act of Parliament called the Do Not Knock law. The sticker is a consumer-driven signal promoted by a community campaign, not a statutory instrument. The Do Not Knock initiative is a consumer advocacy effort that hands out the physical stickers and encourages households to display them (Do Not Knock, n.d.). That is all it is on its face: a clear notice from the occupier that they do not want uninvited sales callers.

So if the sticker is not itself a statute, where does its force come from? It comes from how it interacts with rules that already exist. The relevant law is the Australian Consumer Law, which is Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)). The ACL governs what is called an unsolicited consumer agreement, which is essentially a sale that begins because the seller approached the customer, not the other way around. A doorstep solar pitch is a textbook unsolicited approach.

The sticker does not create new obligations. What it does is remove any doubt about the occupier’s wishes, and that matters a great deal once you look at the rules that do carry direct legal weight.

The rules that do have teeth

The ACL sets hard requirements for anyone selling door-to-door, and these are the ones that will actually land you in trouble. According to the ACCC’s guidance on telemarketing and door-to-door sales, a salesperson conducting unsolicited sales must observe permitted contact hours, must disclose who they are and why they are there, and must leave when asked (ACCC, n.d.).

Break those down, because each one is a place a rep can trip:

Permitted hours. Door-to-door contact is restricted to weekdays between 9am and 6pm, and Saturdays between 9am and 5pm. No Sundays, no public holidays (ACCC, n.d.). A rep knocking at 7pm on a Tuesday is already outside the rules before a single word is spoken.

Identity and purpose up front. The rep has to state their name, the business they represent, and the fact that they are there to sell something, as soon as practicable and before any sales pitch begins. Queensland’s fair trading guidance reinforces the same point for anyone selling in that state (Queensland Government, n.d.).

Leave when told. This is the big one. If the occupier asks the salesperson to leave, the salesperson must leave immediately and must not come back to that address for at least 30 days (ACCC, n.d.). That is a direct legal obligation, and it is where the sticker becomes genuinely important.

So does ignoring the sticker breach the law?

Here is the precise answer, and it is worth being exact rather than comfortable.

A visible “Do Not Knock” sticker is a standing, written instruction from the occupier that they do not want uninvited sales callers. This is not just a reasonable inference either: the Federal Court has already ruled on it, twice. In September 2012 the Court found that Neighbourhood Energy and Australian Green Credits breached the ACL by ignoring a visible Do Not Knock sticker, with penalties around $1 million (ACCC, n.d.). In 2013 to 2014 the Court confirmed the same principle in proceedings against AGL South Australia and its marketing company CPM Australia, where Justice Middleton held that a clearly displayed sign “conveyed a clear and unambiguous request to leave the premises without knocking”, with combined penalties exceeding $1.7 million (Consumer Action Law Centre, n.d.). That is settled Federal Court precedent, not an open legal question.

The status of the sticker as a pre-emptive request has, in other words, already been tested, and the courts have come down clearly on one side. A rep who is asked to leave and does not, or who returns inside 30 days, has also clearly broken the law (ACCC, n.d.). Anyone who tells you the sticker is legally meaningless is simply wrong.

The practical reality is this. The moment a rep knocks past a household that has clearly signalled “no” with a displayed sticker, they are already on the wrong side of the ACL, and they have handed the occupier a legitimate grievance before a single word is exchanged. That is a bad place to run a business from.

What recourse a homeowner has

For completeness, because your customers will ask. A homeowner who feels a solar rep did the wrong thing has clear pathways. They can complain to the ACCC, and they can complain to their state or territory consumer protection agency, such as Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading (Queensland Government, n.d.).

On top of that, the cooling-off protections apply regardless of how the sale started. An unsolicited consumer agreement carries a 10 business day cooling-off period during which the customer can cancel the contract without penalty, and the trader cannot supply or accept payment for certain higher-value goods during that window (ACCC, n.d.). That is one reason paperwork discipline matters so much on doorstep solar sales, and I have written more about that in the full breakdown of door-to-door solar sales compliance.

Why the compliant business respects the sticker anyway

Now the part that actually matters for you as an operator, because you are not a homeowner and you are not a regulator. You are running a business with a reputation and a licence to protect.

Forget for a moment whether the sticker is technically enforceable. Train your reps to treat it as a hard stop regardless, and here is why that is the commercially correct call:

Complaints cost more than the sale. A single ACL complaint pulls management time, invites scrutiny of your whole sales process, and can escalate to a regulator that has genuine enforcement powers. No doorstep sale is worth that exposure.

Reputation outlasts the job. In solar, word travels. A rep who badgers a household that stuck a sticker on the door is generating exactly the story that gets screenshotted and posted to the local community group. That reputational damage outlives any single install.

Industry conduct standards. Businesses signed up to the New Energy Tech Consumer Code, the Clean Energy Council-administered code that replaced its former Solar Retailer Code of Conduct in 2023, commit to responsible sales behaviour, and aggressive doorknocking against a clear “no” is precisely the conduct those codes exist to stamp out (Clean Energy Council, n.d.). Falling foul of a conduct code you have signed is a self-inflicted wound.

It is the low-friction, high-trust move. Reps who respect the sticker walk away from a household that was never going to buy from a doorstep pitch anyway, and they spend that time on doors that might actually convert. Respecting the “no” is not just compliant, it is better use of the day.

The through-line I have watched play out across hundreds of businesses is simple: the operators who treat compliance as a floor rather than a ceiling are the ones still trading in five years. Doorstep selling in solar already carries a trust deficit. You do not close that gap by arguing the fine print of whether a sticker is legally binding. You close it by making respect for the customer’s wishes a non-negotiable part of how your reps work.

Where documentation fits

The other half of protecting yourself is being able to prove you did the right thing. If a complaint about an unsolicited approach ever lands, the business that can show a clean record of what was disclosed, when consent was given, and when the cooling-off clock started is in a completely different position to the one relying on a rep’s memory.

That paper trail is exactly the problem I am building CurrentFlow to solve. The idea is to let a solar business document consent, disclosure and cooling-off timing at the point of sale, so a compliant operator has a clear record if anyone ever questions how a sale began. It is the tool I wanted every time I watched a good business get dragged into a dispute it could have closed out in one email if the records had been there.

Respect the sticker, work inside the hours, disclose up front, leave when asked, and keep the receipts. That is not just how you stay on the right side of the ACL. It is how you keep the trust that keeps a solar business alive.

References

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Court confirms salespeople must not ignore Do Not Knock signs. https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/court-confirms-salespeople-must-not-ignore-do-not-knock-signs

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Telemarketing and door-to-door sales. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/telemarketing-and-door-to-door-sales

Clean Energy Council. (n.d.). New Energy Tech Consumer Code. https://cleanenergycouncil.org.au/industry-programs/retailers/approved-solar-retailer-program

Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) sch 2 (Australian Consumer Law).

Consumer Action Law Centre. (n.d.). Federal Court finds Do Not Knock sign is an unambiguous request to leave the premises. https://consumeraction.org.au/media-release-federal-court-finds-do-not-knock-sign-is-an-unambiguous-request-to-leave-the-premises/

Do Not Knock. (n.d.). Do Not Knock. http://donotknock.org.au/

Queensland Government. (n.d.). Door-to-door sales, telemarketing and travelling traders. https://www.qld.gov.au/community/fair-trading/consumer-rights-complaints-and-scams/buying-products-and-services/understanding-sales-practices/door-to-door-telemarketing-sales-rules

FAQ

Is a Do Not Knock sticker legally binding on solar salespeople in Australia?

The sticker is not a law in its own right, but the Federal Court has already ruled on what it means. In cases against Neighbourhood Energy and Australian Green Credits (2012) and against AGL South Australia and CPM Australia (2013 to 2014), the Court found that a clearly displayed Do Not Knock sticker is an unambiguous request to leave under the Australian Consumer Law, and ignoring it breaches the ACL, with combined penalties in those cases exceeding $2.7 million. A rep who is asked to leave and does not, or who returns within 30 days, has also breached the ACL (ACCC, n.d.). The safest position for any business, and the legally correct one, is to treat a visible sticker as a hard stop.

Under ACL rules, door-to-door contact is permitted on weekdays between 9am and 6pm and on Saturdays between 9am and 5pm, with no calling on Sundays or public holidays (ACCC, n.d.). A rep operating outside those hours is already non-compliant regardless of anything else that happens at the door.

What is the cooling-off period for a solar contract signed at the door?

An unsolicited consumer agreement, which includes most doorstep solar sales, carries a 10 business day cooling-off period during which the customer can cancel without penalty (ACCC, n.d.). This protection applies regardless of how politely or aggressively the sale was made.

Where can a homeowner complain about a solar rep who ignored their sticker?

A homeowner can complain to the ACCC and to their state or territory consumer protection agency, such as Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading (Queensland Government, n.d.). For a solar business, the goal is never to be the subject of one of those complaints in the first place.

Should I train my reps to respect the sticker even if it is not strictly enforceable?

Yes. Whether or not the sticker alone counts as a breach, engaging a household that has clearly signalled “no” invites complaints, reputational damage and conduct-code issues, and it wastes a rep’s time on a door that was never going to convert from a cold pitch. Respecting the sticker is both the compliant and the commercially smart move.