Durham, North Carolina: door-to-door solicitor permit

• The answer: No door-to-door solicitor permit appears in the Durham City Code. Chapter 54, Sales and Solicitations; Business Regulation, has one solicitation article and it covers only "Sales and Solicitations in the Street Right-of-Way" (Article II, 54-25 and following). The code does still print an old peddler privilege license tax (30-263), but it defines a peddler as someone who travels with an inventory of goods and "delivers the identical goods carried with him or her" — not a rep taking orders for a service — and the city's own memo says the privilege license tax "has been repealed." What still applies: no loose advertising bills or circulars left in yards or on vehicles (26-114).
• Where it comes from: No office issues a solicitor permit under the code.
• Fee: None. The code creates no door-to-door permit, so there is no fee to publish. The peddler tax amounts still printed in 30-263 are for the privilege license tax the city says was repealed in July 2015, and they were for sellers carrying goods.
• Hours you may knock: The code sets no knocking hours.
• What the rep carries: Nothing prescribed by the code for door-to-door reps.
• What takes the time: Nothing in the code: no background check, bond or badge.
• Code: Durham City Code Chapter 54, Articles I and II (54-1 to 54-192); 30-263 (peddlers, itinerant merchants, privilege license tax); 26-114 (handbills). Municode reads "Codified through Ordinance No. 16560, enacted October 20, 2025. (Supp. No. 36)".
• Worth knowing: Do not leave loose flyers: it is unlawful to place "any loose bills or circulars of an advertising nature" on streets, sidewalks, adjacent yards or vehicles (26-114). Do not sell from the street or sidewalk: Article II restricts sales activity in the street right-of-way (54-88, 54-91). The city's own roadside solicitation memo says of street sales that permits are no longer required and that the old privilege license tax "has been repealed." That memo is about streets, not doorsteps.
• Read it yourself: Durham City Code Ch. 54, Sales and Solicitations; Business Regulation · Durham City Code, table of contents · City of Durham memo: Roadside Solicitation Rules · Durham City Code Ch. 30, Art. V, Privilege License Taxes (30-263 peddlers) · Durham City Code 26-114, Distribution of handbills · Municode search of the Durham code (peddler) · checked 19 September 2026

Ask the clerk, and write the answer down: Is the peddler license in City Code 30-263 still issued or enforced, given the 2015 repeal of the privilege license tax? Does the city require any registration for commercial door-to-door sales that is not in the City Code? Does Durham enforce posted "No Soliciting" signs under any ordinance, or only as trespass? Does the police department want advance notice when a sales team works a neighborhood? Clerk’s name ______________   Direct line ______________   Date called ______________