Escondido, CA Soliciting & Door-to-Door: No-Knock Registry (2026)

Municipal Code Sec. 16-98, in Chapter 16's Division 5 on Advertising, makes it unlawful for any person to distribute, deposit, place, throw, scatter, or cast a commercial or noncommercial handbill on any premises if requested by anyone there not to, or if a sign is posted in a conspicuous position near the entrance reading "No Trespassing," "No Peddlers or Agents," "No Advertisement," or any similar notice indicating the occupants do not want their privacy disturbed. The city separately defines who is covered: Sec. 16-3 defines a "peddler" as a hawker or vendor who, without an appointment, goes house to house or along the streets selling and delivering goods on the spot, and a "solicitor" as a person soliciting, canvassing, or taking orders house to house, by phone, or by any other means for goods, services, future delivery, subscriptions, or donations, including for-profit and nonprofit fundraising.

Every person or business that peddles or solicits must be independently licensed: Sec. 16-28 requires a temporary business permit before conducting any temporary business, and Sec. 16-29 specifically requires that if the temporary business consists of peddling or soliciting, the applicant must supply a list of everyone conducting that business, with a separate permit issued in each individual's name, at a fee of $5 per day under Sec. 16-30. Sec. 16-99 separately bars posting, handing out, or distributing any handbill that tends to incite riot or public disorder or that contains obscene material, regardless of posted signage.

The division exempts newspapers, magazines, and literature devoted to religious, political, or civic expression from the handbill restrictions under Sec. 16-93, so a "No Soliciting" sign cannot be used to block that constitutionally protected material, only commercial solicitation and handbilling.