Door-to-Door Solar Sales in Tasmania: Your Rights and the Red Flags

The knock usually comes mid-afternoon. Someone friendly, a clipboard or tablet, a lanyard, and a line about a “government program in your area” or an offer that’s only good today. It happens in Hobart’s suburbs, around Launceston, and up and down the regional highways — and solar and battery gear is one of the products sold this way most often.

Going solar in Tasmania can genuinely stack up. But the doorstep is the worst possible place to decide, and the law gives you more power than most people realise. Here’s what your rights actually are, and what should make you pause. This is consumer-rights information, not legal advice.

When are door-to-door salespeople even allowed to knock?

Under the rules the ACCC enforces, door-to-door salespeople may only visit between 9am and 6pm on weekdays, and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays. They must not visit on Sundays or public holidays. The only exception is if you arranged the appointment beforehand, by phone or in writing.

So a Sunday morning knock, or someone turning up at 7pm on a weeknight, is already outside the rules — and that matters later, because it changes how long you have to cancel.

Do they have to tell me who they are, and leave if I ask?

Yes, to both. The ACCC is clear that a salesperson must show identification, say who they represent and why they’re there, tell you that you can ask them to leave, and then leave immediately when asked.

They also cannot come back. Once you’ve asked a salesperson to leave, they must not contact you again for at least 30 days.

You don’t need a reason, and you don’t need to be polite about it. “No thanks, please leave” is a complete sentence.

Does a “Do Not Knock” sticker actually do anything?

It does. ACCC guidance treats a “Do Not Knock” sign as a request to leave — meaning a salesperson who knocks anyway has already breached the rules. Federal Court decisions in 2012 and 2013 confirmed that position.

If door-knocking bothers you, a sign on the gate or front door is the simplest protection available, and it works while you’re out.

I signed something on the doorstep. Can I get out of it?

Almost certainly, yes. An unsolicited agreement comes with a 10-business-day cooling-off period, and you can cancel for any reason at all, without penalty. You don’t have to justify it.

That window gets much longer if the salesperson broke the rules:

What happened	Cooling-off period
A standard unsolicited agreement	10 business days
They breached the rules on permitted hours, disclosure, or leaving when asked	3 months
They didn’t tell you about your cooling-off rights, didn’t give you a copy of the agreement, supplied goods or services over $500 during cooling-off, or requested or accepted payment during cooling-off	6 months

One more point worth committing to memory: during the cooling-off period, the seller cannot request or accept any payment from you at all. If someone is pushing for a deposit on the spot “to lock in the rebate”, that request is itself the problem.

How common is this — and how often do the rules get broken?

More common than you’d think. In a review published on 28 July 2026 — prompted by the Consumer Action Law Centre’s March 2025 designated complaint, the first under that new framework — the ACCC found that about three-quarters of consumers surveyed had experienced unsolicited selling in the previous two years, and about 28% had bought something after an unsolicited approach. In the previous six months alone, 60% had been telemarketed, 41% approached in a public place and around 30% doorknocked.

The compliance numbers in the same ACCC review are the sobering part. Among people who did buy after an unsolicited approach:

Only 70.9% said the salesperson identified themselves
Only 54.1% received a written copy of the agreement
Only 63.0% were told about the termination period
About 40% regretted the purchase, and more than 60% experienced problems

The ACCC noted that solar panels and energy devices were among the products most frequently bought this way, and that some smaller solar businesses told it up to 80% of their business came from unsolicited selling. In September 2026 the ACCC confirmed to the ABC that it has several investigations under way into solar and battery installers’ sales practices. It has also recommended higher penalties and replacing cooling-off with an “opt-in” model.

What are the Tasmania-specific red flags in a doorstep pitch?

Some claims are wrong everywhere. Others are wrong specifically here, which makes them a useful test of whether the person at your door knows our grid at all.

“There’s a Tasmanian battery rebate.” There isn’t a separate state battery rebate. The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program, running since 1 July 2025, can take roughly 30% off an eligible battery that’s paired with solar — but it tapers each year to 2030, and eligibility depends on the product and the install.
“You’ll make money selling power back to the grid.” Tasmania’s regulated feed-in tariff is modest — 9.276 c/kWh from 1 July 2026 — against an import price of roughly 28–30 c/kWh. The value here is in using your own power, not exporting it.
“Join our VPP and earn income.” No vendor or retail VPP program operates in Tasmania. Wholesale spot-passthrough retailing does exist, and automated battery control can respond to it, but that’s a different conversation from a VPP cheque.
Confident claims about your tariff. Since 1 July 2024, every new or upgraded residential connection is assigned Tariff 93, the time-of-use default, with peak periods on weekdays. Tariff 97 is the newer opt-in tariff for homes with solar, a battery or an EV, and whether you can get it depends on your retailer. Anyone asserting what you’ll pay without looking at your actual bill and meter is guessing.
“This price is only available today.” A legitimate design depends on your roof, shading, switchboard and consumption pattern. None of that can be assessed from your front step.
No named components. If they won’t put the specific panel, inverter and battery models in writing, there is nothing to compare.

What does a proper quote look like instead?

A sound local quote comes after a site visit, arrives in writing, names every component, and needs no signature on the day. You should have time to read it cold, with the pressure gone.

For a Tasmanian household planning to electrify — an EV, heat pump, induction cooking — around 13kW of panels on a 10kW inverter has become a sensible future-proofed starting point, helped by the 133% oversizing rule and the fact that TasNetworks permits a 10kW single-phase inverter, so most homes don’t need three-phase. The federal STC rebate (Tasmania is Zone 4) reduces the upfront cost. Equally honestly: a very low-use home with no battery, EV or electrification plans may be better served by something smaller. Solar costs are typically discussed as paying back over a handful of years and batteries considerably longer, but the real figure depends entirely on your usage, your tariff and your roof — and Tasmania’s cheap power and fair feed-in tariff mean a battery generally pays back more slowly here than on the mainland.

The practical takeaway

Keep one rule: nothing gets signed at the door. Take the brochure, write down the company name and the salesperson’s name, and say you’ll be in touch after you’ve had other quotes. If they won’t accept that, you’ve learned what you needed to know.

If you’ve already signed, count the business days, check the list above against what actually happened at your door, and put any cancellation in writing — email is fine — before the window closes. If they took a payment during cooling-off, note the date, because that single fact can extend your rights to six months.

This guide was put together by the Tasmanian solar team at Solar Generation Tasmania. We’re locals, we’re happy to answer questions about how any of this applies to your home, and there’s no catch in asking.

#solargentas #solargen #solargenerationtasmania

Published by Solar Generation Tasmania. General information current as at publication — rebates, tariffs and prices change, so confirm current figures before deciding.