Every guide I can find on door-to-door solar sales is written for the homeowner who has already signed something on their doorstep and now wants out. Fair enough. But nobody writes for the person on the other side of that door: the solar business owner or the rep who has to run the sale compliantly in the first place.
That is a gap worth closing, because doorknocking is still a live channel in this industry, and the rules around it are not optional. Get the paperwork and the process right and a doorstep sale is perfectly legal. Get it wrong and you have handed the customer a legal exit, invited a fair trading complaint, and put your business at risk of a penalty that dwarfs the margin on the job.
Here is what an unsolicited consumer agreement actually requires, in plain English, from a business point of view.
Most doorstep and cold-call solar sales are “unsolicited consumer agreements”
Start with the definition, because it decides everything that follows. Under the Australian Consumer Law, an agreement is an “unsolicited consumer agreement” when a salesperson approaches a customer who did not invite the contact, the negotiation happens somewhere other than the supplier’s business premises (a doorstep, a shopping centre, over the phone), and the deal is worth more than $100 or the price cannot be worked out at the time (ACCC, n.d.).
Read that again and you will see that almost every doorknocked or cold-called solar sale sits squarely inside it. A rep walks a street they were not invited to, pitches a system on the front step, and the price is well over $100. That is an unsolicited consumer agreement, full stop. The moment you accept that, you accept the obligations that come attached, and they are stricter than a normal over-the-counter sale (Commoner Law, n.d.).
The trap I see is businesses assuming that because the customer “seemed keen” or “asked us to come back”, the sale is somehow solicited. It usually is not. If your rep initiated the first contact, treat it as unsolicited and comply. Guessing the other way is how you lose the sale later.
What a rep must say and do before anyone signs
The disclosure rules exist so a homeowner is never ambushed. Your rep has to get these right at the door, every time, without exception.
Before starting the pitch, the rep must clearly tell the customer who they are, which business they represent, and that the purpose of the visit is to sell something (ACCC, n.d.). No soft openers about a “free energy assessment” that is really a sales call. The purpose has to be stated up front.
The rep must also leave, immediately, if the customer asks them to. That is not a suggestion. A customer can put a “do not knock” sticker on the door or simply say “not interested”, and the rep is legally required to go and not come back (Queensland Government, n.d.).
When a deal is done, the agreement has to be in writing, given to the customer, and it has to spell out the cooling-off rights on the front page in the required form (ACCC, n.d.). A verbal handshake on a solar system is not a compliant unsolicited consumer agreement. If the document does not contain the mandated cooling-off notice, the whole agreement can be challenged.
The permitted hours are narrower than most reps assume
There are set hours for doorknocking, and they catch people out. Under the ACL, uninvited sales visits are only allowed on weekdays between 9am and 6pm, and on Saturdays between 9am and 5pm. No visits on Sundays or public holidays at all (ACCC, n.d.).
If your team is knocking at 7pm on a summer evening because “that’s when people are home”, you are outside permitted hours and every one of those sales is exposed. The Queensland guidance sets out the same permitted-hours framework and the requirement to leave on request (Queensland Government, n.d.). Build the hours into your roster, not into your rep’s judgement in the moment.
The 10-business-day cooling-off period, and what you cannot do during it
This is the one that trips up cashflow. An unsolicited consumer agreement carries a cooling-off period of 10 business days, and the clock starts the first business day after the customer receives their copy of the agreement (ACCC, n.d.). Cooling-off rights vary by contract type across Australia, and solar doorstep sales sit at the longer end of that scale (Sprintlaw, n.d.).
During that window the customer can cancel for any reason, in writing, and owe you nothing. There is no penalty they have to pay and no reason they have to give.
The part businesses forget is what the supplier is restricted from doing during the cooling-off period. You generally must not accept or demand payment during those 10 business days, and you must not supply goods or start work above the low threshold set in the law until the period has run (ACCC, n.d.). In practice that means no deposit taken on the doorstep for a full system, and no booking the crew to bolt panels on the roof inside the cooling-off window. If you install early and the customer then cancels, you have done unpaid work you may have to reverse, and you have breached the supply restriction on top of it.
I know the instinct is to lock the job in fast. But rushing the install to beat cooling-off is exactly the behaviour the rule is written to stop, and it turns a cancellable sale into a compliance problem.
Prohibited conduct: the fast way to lose a sale and cop a penalty
Beyond hours and disclosures, there is a list of conduct that will sink you.
You cannot use high-pressure or unconscionable tactics: refusing to leave, wearing a customer down, implying they will miss out if they do not sign tonight. And you absolutely cannot misrepresent the numbers. Overstating the savings, inventing a discount, or telling a customer they are getting a government “rebate” on their panels are all misleading conduct under the ACL.
On that last point, be accurate. Small-scale Technology Certificates are not a rebate. They are tradeable certificates created from an eligible system’s deemed generation, which liable entities must buy and surrender to the Clean Energy Regulator under the Renewable Energy Target, and the customer usually assigns their right to create them in exchange for an up-front discount (Clean Energy Regulator, n.d.). If your rep is calling the STC discount a “government rebate” at the door, that is a misrepresentation waiting to be picked apart. Train it out of your pitch.
What it costs when you get it wrong
The consequences are not abstract. A non-compliant unsolicited consumer agreement can be treated as void, which means the customer can walk away and, in the worst case, recover money already paid (ACCC, n.d.). If the paperwork is defective, the customer’s right to terminate can stretch well beyond the standard 10 business days.
Enforcement runs through the ACCC and the state and territory fair trading regulators, who can pursue penalties for breaches of the unsolicited-agreement rules (ACCC, n.d.). If a dispute escalates, it can land at a state tribunal like QCAT, where a defective agreement is not a good look for the business defending it (QCAT, n.d.). For the wider dispute and cancellation picture in solar specifically, the federal energy guidance is worth knowing (energy.gov.au, n.d.). If you want the money side of a cancelled job, see my companion piece on what happens to the STC discount when a solar job falls over.
A doorstep compliance checklist you can hand a rep
Keep it simple enough that a rep can run it on every door:
Before the pitch: state your name, your business, and that you are here to sell solar. Confirm it is within permitted hours (weekday 9 to 6, Saturday 9 to 5, never Sunday or a public holiday). Leave immediately if asked.
At signing: put the agreement in writing, hand the customer their copy, and make sure the cooling-off notice is on it in the required form.
During cooling-off: take no payment and do no install above the threshold for 10 business days from the day after the customer received their copy. Log the exact date the copy was handed over, because that timestamp is what proves your window.
Never: overstate savings, call the STC discount a rebate, or pressure a signature on the night.
The whole thing lives or dies on documentation. If a sale is ever challenged, the business that can produce a correctly worded agreement, a timestamp for when the copy was handed over, and a clean record of the cooling-off window is the business that wins. The one relying on a rep’s memory is not.
This is exactly the kind of process I am building CurrentFlow to handle. The idea is that every unsolicited consumer agreement is generated in the right form and logged with a timestamp, so your cooling-off clock and your disclosures are defensible by default rather than reconstructed after a complaint lands.
References
ACCC. (n.d.). Telemarketing and door-to-door sales. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/telemarketing-and-door-to-door-sales
ACCC. (n.d.). Contracts. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/contracts
Clean Energy Regulator. (n.d.). Small-scale technology certificates. https://cer.gov.au/schemes/renewable-energy-target/small-scale-renewable-energy-scheme/small-scale-technology-certificates
Commoner Law. (n.d.). Queensland unsolicited consumer agreements (door-to-door sales) laws. https://commoner-law.com/australia/consumer-rights/unsolicited-consumer-agreements/qld
energy.gov.au. (n.d.). Dispute resolution. https://www.energy.gov.au/solar/solar-retailers-and-installation/dispute-resolution
Queensland Government. (n.d.). Door-to-door sales, telemarketing and travelling traders. https://www.qld.gov.au/law/your-rights/consumer-rights-complaints-and-scams/buying-products-and-services/understanding-sales-practices/door-to-door-telemarketing-sales-rules
QCAT. (n.d.). Consumer and trader disputes. Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. https://www.qcat.qld.gov.au/case-types/consumers-traders-and-businesses/consumer-and-trader-dispute-process
Sprintlaw. (n.d.). Cooling-off periods in Australian contracts: Essential legal guide. https://sprintlaw.com.au/articles/cooling-off-periods-in-australian-contracts-essential-legal-guide/
FAQ
Is a door-to-door solar sale always an unsolicited consumer agreement?
Not always, but usually. If your rep initiated the contact, the negotiation happened away from your business premises, and the deal is worth more than $100, it is an unsolicited consumer agreement under the Australian Consumer Law (ACCC, n.d.). When you are unsure, treat it as one and comply. Assuming the sale was solicited is the riskier bet.
Can I take a deposit at the door to lock in the solar job?
Generally no. For an unsolicited consumer agreement you must not accept or demand payment during the 10-business-day cooling-off period, and you cannot supply goods or start the install above the low legislated threshold until it ends (ACCC, n.d.). Taking a doorstep deposit on a full system is one of the fastest ways to breach the rules.
When does the cooling-off period actually start?
It starts on the first business day after the customer receives their copy of the written agreement, and it runs for 10 business days (ACCC, n.d.). This is why logging the exact date and time you handed over the copy matters so much: that timestamp defines your window if the sale is ever disputed.
What happens if my unsolicited consumer agreement is not compliant?
A defective agreement can be treated as void, letting the customer terminate and potentially recover money paid, and it extends their termination rights well past the standard 10 business days (ACCC, n.d.). The ACCC and state fair trading regulators can also pursue penalties, and disputes can end up at a tribunal like QCAT (QCAT, n.d.).
Can I tell a customer the STCs are a government rebate to close the sale?
No. STCs are tradeable certificates created from a system’s deemed generation and surrendered by liable entities under the Renewable Energy Target, not a rebate (Clean Energy Regulator, n.d.). Calling the STC discount a rebate at the door is a misrepresentation, and misleading the customer about the numbers is prohibited conduct that can void the sale.