Recent reports from Perth home owners about bogus door-to-door sellers are a good reminder to make sure you know your rights when a salesperson knocks.

In the past few weeks, people have told us about visits from door-to-door water testers who give the impression they are from the Government and make false claims about water quality, but are really sellers of water filtration systems.

Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), you have rights when a salesperson approaches you at your front door. These protections apply to ‘unsolicited consumer agreements’, such as door-to-door selling and telemarketing.

To weed out sellers making false claims or misrepresenting themselves, always ask for identification. If you think a door-to-door salesperson is using deceptive tactics to drum up business, make a written note of the person's and the company's name, address and telephone number.

Providing identification is just one of the rules door-to-door sellers have to follow about how and when can they approach you and what information they are required to give you.

Door-to-door sellers can only contact you between 9am and 6pm on weekdays and between 9am and 5pm on Saturdays, they must explain the purpose of their visit and they have to provide identification. If you ask a salesperson to leave, they must go immediately.

When you make an agreement with a door-to-door seller, they should provide a copy of the signed contract and disclose your ‘cooling off’ or termination rights. Under the ACL, you have 10 business days to reconsider an agreement and cancel it without penalty.

If you don’t want to deal with uninvited door-to-door sellers, email your full name and postal address to consumer@dmirs.wa.gov.au and ask for a “Do not knock" sticker to display on or near your front door.

Telemarketers can only contact you between 9am and 8pm on weekdays and between 9am and 5pm on Saturdays.

To opt out of receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls, register your numbers on www.donotcall.gov.au.

For more information call us on 1300 304 054 or visit www.consumerprotection.wa.gov.au.