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

Section 14-8.13 of the Novato Municipal Code makes commercial solicitation unlawful at any residential dwelling, or other premises in the city, painted or posted with a clearly visible sign bearing the words "No Peddlers," "No Solicitors," "No Agents," "No Salesmen," or other words of similar meaning. Commercial solicitation covers peddlers selling goods door to door, solicitors taking orders for future delivery, and canvassers running door-to-door polls or surveys for commercial purposes (§ 14-8.1).

Section 14-8.14 adds conduct rules for solicitors in the city. A solicitor may not affix any object to a member of the public without express permission, may not fail to leave a residential dwelling immediately after the owner or occupant asks, and may not disturb the peace of the dwelling or the surrounding neighborhood. Section 14-8.3 exempts religious, political and charitable canvassers from most of section 14-8 but keeps §§ 14-8.14 and 14-8.15 (misrepresentation) in force for them. By its terms, the leave-immediately and no-disturbance rules therefore reach those canvassers, while the commercial sign rule in § 14-8.13 does not.

Charitable solicitors have their own sign rule in § 14-9.14: no person may engage in charitable solicitation at a residential dwelling or other premises painted or posted with a sign bearing the words "No Solicitors" or other words of similar meaning. Section 14-9.3 lists exemptions from section 14-9, such as volunteer recruiting, family solicitations in the name of a deceased person, solicitations among an organization's own members and public agencies, but excepts §§ 14-9.14 and 14-9.15 from those exemptions, so the sign binds them too.

The chapter prints no solicitation hours. The triggers are the posted or painted sign and the occupant's request to leave, and permit holders carry the same obligations as everyone else because a permit under § 14-8.2 does not override a posted sign.