Front door and lock. (Credit: Rebecca Siegel/ Flickr)
Brick officials are reminding residents that the township maintains a “no knock” list for residents who do not wish to have salespeople or solicitors come to their doors. The reminder comes as the township prepares to update the list, which is republished twice per year and handed to solicitors who obtain permits.
“I get a lot of e-mails and phone calls from people who are upset that salespeople are coming to their door all hours of the day and on weekends – and they don’t love it,” said Mayor Lisa Crate.
Residents can sign up for the No Knock list from the township clerk’s page on the Brick municipal website. The specific link to the form can be found here.
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“The clerk keeps a list of those, and every time a sales group comes to register here at town hall, they receive that list and they know not to knock on your door,” said Crate, adding that residents seeking to display the fact that they are on the list can obtain an official sticker at the clerk’s office at the municipal complex for $1.
Brick’s solicitation and no knock ordinance is one of the most robust in the area. A company cannot simply make an application to the township and send its employees or contractors out to solicit business, officials have said. Each person who is physically planning to knock on doors must register with the township and provide a number of items to prove identity: three photographs, two letters from character references and one business reference letter. The person must also pass a background check and post a $1,000 security bond.
A permit can then be issued by the township clerk’s office with a laminated photo identification.
“If someone comes to your door and you’re not on the Do Not Knock list, I recommend you ask to see if they’re registered with the town,” said Crate. “If someone comes to your door and they’re not registered, you have every right to tell them to leave and you can actually call the police and let them know there are people soliciting in your neighborhood without the proper identification.”
Brick has long had a “no knock” ordinance, and was one of the first local towns to adopt one. The first ordinance governing soliciting dates back to 1970, with the latest revision having been adopted in 2014.
Under Brick’s ordinance, numerous limitations are placed on door-to-door solicitors:
- Anyone soliciting door-to-door must obtain a license to do so from the township.
- Religious, nonprofit and political organizations are exempt.
- No soliciting is allowed between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m.
- “No person subject to the terms of this chapter shall conduct himself in such a manner as to become objectionable to or annoy an occupant of any house.”
- Solicitors must show their solicitation permit at the request of any resident or any police officer.
- Licenses can be revoked if a solicitor commits fraud or misrepresents themselves on the license application or while doing business in town, if they are convicted or a crime, or if they conduct themselves in a manner “as to constitute a breach of the peace or to constitute a menace to the health, safety or general welfare of the public.”
