Door-to-Door Solicitation Laws for Business Door Teams

Write down, before the first shift, whether your team only asks a question and records the answer, books a later visit, or takes signed orders at the door. That choice decides which rules apply. The federal Cooling-Off Rule covers a sale where the seller personally solicits it at the home, including those in response to or following an invitation by the buyer, with a purchase price of $25 or more at the buyer's residence or $130 or more when it is made at locations other than the buyer's residence. So an appointment your canvass books, which ends in an order signed in the customer's living room, is still a door-to-door sale under the federal rule.

Look up your state's own door-to-door or home-solicitation statute before you pick neighborhoods, because a state can add duties the federal rule does not. Florida is a clear example. Its statute makes it unlawful to conduct a home solicitation sale "without first obtaining a valid home solicitation sale permit as provided in this section," and a separate section provides that "A person may not engage in commercial solicitation on any dwelling that clearly and prominently displays a sign that is no less than 8.5 by 11 inches." Read your own state's statute the same way, and write each duty it adds on the team's shift sheet before the first knock.

List every city and town on your door list and read each one's solicitor or peddler ordinance, since the federal rule leaves the ordinances of a political subdivision in force. Grapevine, Texas shows what one looks like: a Solicitor's Permit is required for peddlers and solicitors, including door-to-door sales and mobile vendors per Chapter 17 of the Grapevine Code of Ordinances, and the same ordinance sets knocking hours, making it unlawful to go upon the premises of a private residence before 9am or after dusk (30 minutes after sunset) of any day, Monday through Saturday, or at any time on Sunday or any other federally designated holiday. Write each city's permit office, fee and hours on the shift sheet, and keep the permit numbers with the team so they can show them when a resident or an officer asks.

If your team takes an order at the home, give the buyer the receipt or contract in the same language, e.g., Spanish, as that principally used in the oral sales presentation. The federal rule requires this statement in immediate proximity to the space reserved in the contract for the signature of the buyer, or on the front page of the receipt if a contract is not used: "You, the buyer, may cancel this transaction at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of this transaction." Train the team to fill it in before leaving the door, and keep a copy with the order.

Brief the team to read the door before knocking: a posted no-solicitation sign means walk on, and a resident who says not to come back is taken off the next round. A city may also keep its own address list: in Grapevine, a resident may register their address to be added to the City of Grapevine's Do-Not Solicit list, so pull that list for your streets before cutting the routes. Record each refusal at the door so the next shift sees it. In Activate, each visit records Yes, No, Not Home or Skip, plus notes, so a refusal travels with the address into the next round.