Legitimate cold callers to your home

Our stickers are not designed to prevent politicians from canvassing for elections, or calls or visits from religious groups, market researchers or charity collectors. Although, you are under no obligation to speak to anyone at the door.

Utility companies

The most likely people to visit your home unannounced are utility companies attending your property to read a meter. Most of these companies operate a password scheme allowing you to register a password. Once you have registered your password, any caller from the company should be asked to provide the password before being given access to your property. You should be able to find the details for registering a password on your utility bills, or by calling their customer service teams.

Charity collectors

All charity collectors should be able to show identification. Any charity carrying out collections for money has to get a permit from the local borough or district council. If you want to confirm that the charity collection is authorised you can contact your local borough or district council.

Some charities ask for donations to be left for collection, using a bag or leaflet. If you get requests like this you should always read the details provided, as some business collect items to sell for profit and they will include a company registration number on their paperwork as opposed to a charity registration number.

All charities are required to be registered with the Charity Commission. To check whether an organisation is a registered charity you should contact the Charity Commission on 0300 066 9197 or visit the Charity Commission website.

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