Religious groups going door to door

Kathy,

Since solicitors are seldom members of your association, you have no control over them. You have no legal standing to prevent anyone from knocking on doors, no matter how annoying you may find it. (I would also prefer that they not knock on my door.) In most states, only the owner may post a "no trespassing" sign but I will bet your HOA has a rule prohibiting posting signs. Without a city or county ordinance there is no way to prevent door-to-door solicitors.

Somewhere in the recent past I recall reading that at least one of the groups you named was suing a gated community for preventing them from entering. I believe their argument was that they were being denied the right to practice their religion. (I do not agree with that argument as the HOA is not a government agency.) I do not know if such a lawsuit was actually filed or where this was so I cannot supply any more details.

In our community trespassers are asked to leave by our security patrol.

Sounds like a perfect method for getting sued if it is not a gated community.

We have the same sign and when "solicitors" (be they religious or whatever) I inform them of such and tell them I will be calling the police. The religious ones like to say we are not soliciting. My reply is yes you are. You are soliciting for god.

I love the "religious solicitors" explain to the cops.....LOL

That may depend on how the roads and sidewalks were dedicated. Phrases such as "Roads and sidewalks are dedicated to the public for use as such" makes them open to the public regardless as to who has title to the land. Dedicated for "non-exclusive ingress and egress" has the same effect. Even when there is an intent to keep the roads private there is usually an exception for invitees, so if one owner or resident invites an outsider to come in, they are not trespassers.

This gets even more complicated in a condo, where the association owns nothing and each owner has an undivided ownership in the common areas. To make a trespass claim stick, 100% of the owners would have to tell the soliciting party to get out or be arrested. If any one of the owners does not wish to make a case out of the incident, the solicitor is there legally.


Agree. Even opening the gate for the FedEx driver may be grounds for a discrimination suit if the gate is closed to others.

I am also not sure where the association would get the authority to decide who comes in and who stays out. How does the association know whether I want the Hari Krishnas knocking on my door? Or the Republicans? Or the Red Cross? That is my decision, not theirs.

Someone can have access to roads and sidewalks but still be prohibited from knocking on doors. The issue isn't trespass, it's nuisance. Street ownership, while adding some minimal weight, is not a prerequisite to excluding solicitors from ringing your doorbell.

But - this does not apply to religious groups who are protected under the first amendment from being classed as ordinary solicitors.

Re the FedEx driver - he's making a delivery, not soliciting.

Also, I don't think you have a problem of discrimination. Real solicitors aren't there to start a fight - they're there to sell you something and move on.

We have an aging population in our HOA. And some of the marketing schemes, especially by phone and cable companies, are too slick for many of our folks. Solicitors go door to door even though we have signs posted. You can't stop it but you can discourage it.

We tell our HOs to:
1. Get listed on the township's do-not-call list ahead of time; and
2. Call the police when solicitors are on property.

In my area of PA, a solicitor must have visibly displayed on his person a photo solicitors license that is issued by our township. The same office that issues those licenses also maintains a do-not-call list for people who don't want solicitors knocking at their door. One complaint from a homeowner who is on the do-not-call list will get the solicitor's license pulled. The threat we use is that we will get their license pulled which will prevent them from working the entire township, not just our community. Works like magic.

Excuse my bluntness, but why would you want the HOA to get involved in this in anyway shape or form? If that's how this religious organization conducts their business, why would you want to put your HOA through a battle such as this? So they knock on some doors trying to spread their views, this is America where you can simply Choose to not open the door.

When someone brings this or other similar stuff up in a meeting, our response is that the HOA is not a babysitter. They, the HO has to deal with this stuff on their own.

Although making your HOA a gated community would be a very good solution.

Thanks Larry but perhaps I was being a bit too blunt. My apologies to Kathy. I don't know the answer to her question about whether a no solicitation sign covers religious groups going door to door. My point is, I don't believe the HOA wants to go down that road. I can see the headline, "HOA HAS GROUP OF MORMONS ARRESTED FOR SOLICITATION". My personal opinion is to let it go. Let the homeowner deal with it.

I would be greatly surprised if the HOA would be allowed to "redefine trespass" and have it enforced by public law enforcement officials.

The Bible thumpers are annoying, it's true. But what truly is worrisome is the fact that these folks are going door to door, at all hours of the day, and that by doing so they can learn about the occupants of each home -- when they are home, the ages of those who are at home, what type of furnishings, etc., can be seen from the door, and so forth. It is, in my opinion, the perfect way to case houses to be robbed or broken into.

We do have a CCTV system which records the license number of each vehicle which enters the development, but our homes sit at the end of a peninsula and if someone was determined, he or she could park a vehicle outside the guard house entrance and then walk overland to whichever home that had been targeted.

And some of our younger folks are home alone. These 'Bible thumpers' might also be sexual predators in the guise of 'doing the Lord's work.'

I am just not happy about it, but I guess there isn't much that can be done about it other than that which I've already done, which is simply ask them to leave.

Thanks for all the help, though. It has been much appreciate, as always.

Thx John, I haven't heard that old chestnut in years.