Pasadena, California: door-to-door solicitor permit

Partly read: the permit answer is sourced, but the fee or the hours could not be read from the city’s own pages. The clerk questions below cover the gap.

• The answer: No door-to-door solicitor permit was found in the Pasadena Municipal Code. Title 5 (Business Licenses and Regulations) has no peddler, solicitor or canvasser chapter — its only solicitation chapter is 5.34, Charitable Solicitations — and Title 9 has none either. What still applies is the city's general business license: "every person engaged in business, whether or not at a fixed place of business within the city" pays the business license tax (5.04.040), it is unlawful to engage in business without the license (5.16.010), and a licensee with no fixed place of business in the city must keep the license on their person while working (5.10.170(B)).
• Where it comes from: The Department of Finance, Business Services Section, issues the general business license. No office issues a solicitor permit because the code sets none up.
• Fee: None for a solicitor permit; there isn't one. The company's business license tax depends on its classification under Chapter 5.16 and was not worked out here. The only "solicitor or peddler" tax line in the code is the special New Year's Day (Tournament of Roses) tax in 5.16.070, which is a one-day event tax, not a door-to-door permit.
• Hours you may knock: Not set. Former § 9.36.130 (hawkers and peddlers), which had set noise-based hours, was repealed by Ord. No. 7436 on October 28, 2024 and the section is now Reserved. No replacement hours rule for door-to-door sales was found.
• What the rep carries: The business license. A licensee "not operating at a fixed place of business in the city shall keep the license upon his person at all times while engaged in business within the city" (5.10.170(B)). No badge is named.
• What takes the time: Nothing solicitor-specific. No background check or fingerprinting for door-to-door reps appears in the code.
• Code: Pasadena Municipal Code Title 5, Article I (5.04.040, 5.10.170) and Chapter 5.16 (5.16.010, 5.16.070); Title 9, Chapter 9.36 (§ 9.36.130 repealed by Ord. No. 7436). Codified through Ordinance No. 7469, enacted May 18, 2026.
• Worth knowing: The City Council repealed the hawkers-and-peddlers noise-hours rule specifically to avoid a First Amendment "speaker-based distinction" problem, per the City Attorney's Ordinance Fact Sheet — general noise-hours rules elsewhere in Chapter 9.36 still apply to everyone. Chapter 9.44, Distribution of Unsolicited Written Material, is also repealed and Reserved, so the code has no handbill rule either.
• Read it yourself: Pasadena Municipal Code Title 5, Article II - Specific Businesses (full chapter list read from the sidebar on the Chapter 5.48 page) · Pasadena Municipal Code Title 5, Article I - Generally (Chapters 5.02-5.12) · Pasadena Municipal Code Chapter 5.16 - Fees for Miscellaneous Businesses · Pasadena Municipal Code Title 9, Article IV - Offenses Against Public Peace (Chapter 9.36, 9.44) · City of Pasadena Department of Finance — Business Licenses · City of Pasadena Ordinance Fact Sheet, Oct. 21, 2024 (Ordinance No. 7436) · checked 19 September 2026

Ask the clerk, and write the answer down: Business Services Section (626-744-4166): does a for-profit door-to-door crew need anything beyond the general business license? Which Chapter 5.16 classification and tax applies to an out-of-town company whose reps sell door to door in Pasadena, and does each rep need a license card? Are there any knocking-hours rules now that the peddler-hours noise section is repealed? Clerk’s name ______________   Direct line ______________   Date called ______________