Provo, Utah Door-to-Door Solicitor Permit: What Each Rep Brings, What It Costs, When to Knock

Yes. Unless one of the narrow exemptions at the bottom applies, every rep who knocks residential doors in Provo to sell something needs a solicitor certificate from the city before the first door, and a city photo badge worn while working. It costs $82 per rep: $72 for the certificate plus $10 for the badge, per the city’s fee schedule. A completed application gets a same-day answer on a temporary certificate, so a rep who walks in with the paperwork can start that day. Knocking stops at 9 p.m.

The paperwork is where a team loses days, so most of this page is the list — in the order to collect it, with the code section behind every line.

On this page

• What each rep brings
• How the clock runs
• Who will not get one
• Rules at the door
• Switching companies mid-season
• Who does not need one
• Questions to ask the city
• What to do today
• Sources

What each rep brings to the counter

The code will not start the clock on a partial application: “The Licensing Officer shall not begin the registration process unless the applicant has submitted a complete application” (6.09.090). “Complete” is defined, and this is the definition turned into a list.

1. The application form. The city’s Solicitor Permit page links an online application; the form’s contents are set by 6.09.070 — legal name and any other names used in the last ten years, phone and addresses, the company’s name, address and phone, and the goods or services being sold.
2. A photo ID, in person, plus two copies of it. A driver’s license from any state, a U.S. passport, a state ID card, or U.S. military ID. The Licensing Officer verifies it in person and hands the original back (6.09.070(5); the two copies are in the definition of “Completed Application,” 6.09.030). An online form does not remove the counter visit.
3. A BCI background check no older than 180 days. A Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification report, or the equivalent report from the rep’s home state if the rep is not a Utah resident (6.09.030, “BCI”; 6.09.070(9)(a)).
4. A signed waiver letting the city run its own name and date-of-birth BCI check. The code’s definition of the waiver says it “contains applicant’s notarized signature” (6.09.030, “Waiver”; 6.09.070(9)(b)). Budget a notary.
5. Proof that the rep or the company has registered with the Utah Department of Commerce (6.09.070(6)).
6. A special events sales tax number for the rep or the company (6.09.070(7)).
7. The fee, $82 as above.

Items 5 and 6 are company paperwork, and the code accepts the company’s. Get both once, before recruiting day, and hand every rep a printed copy. Otherwise every rep discovers the same missing number at the same counter on the same morning.

Item 3 is the one that moves a start date. Neither the code nor the city’s permit page gives a turnaround for a BCI report, and the report expires for this purpose 180 days after it is dated — so a check a recruit pulled in the winter can be too old by a June start. Have every recruit request it the day they sign.

How the clock runs once the application is in

1. Same business day: the temporary certificate is granted or denied (6.09.080(9)). If granted, it allows the rep “to immediately begin door-to-door solicitation” (6.09.100(1)(a)), and the city issues the photo badge with it (6.09.110(2)).
2. Within 25 calendar days: the city checks what was submitted and sends written notice that the rep either will or will not get an annual certificate. The temporary certificate expires at 25 days or at that decision, whichever comes first (6.09.100(1)(b) and (2)).
3. One year: the annual certificate runs from the day the temporary one issued and “shall expire at midnight on the anniversary date.” Renewal is a new complete application and a new fee (6.09.100(3)).
4. If it is denied or suspended: the notice states the grounds, and the rep or the company has ten business days to appeal in writing to the City Recorder (6.09.140(3); 6.09.150(2)(a)). The appeals officer decides within fifteen calendar days unless both sides agree to more time (6.09.150(2)(d)).

Who will not get one — screen for this before you pay for travel

The code lists a “disqualifying status,” and a rep who has one is refused a certificate or loses it (6.09.030; 6.09.140). The applicant affirms or denies each item on the form under penalty of perjury (6.09.070(10) and (12)). In short:

• a felony conviction within the last ten years;
• federal or state prison within the past five years;
• a misdemeanor conviction within the past five years involving moral turpitude, or violent or aggravated conduct;
• a conviction for, or a pending charge of, felony homicide, abuse or exploitation of a minor, sale or distribution of controlled substances, or sexual assault;
• a civil judgment within five years finding fraud or intentional misrepresentation, or a debt found non-dischargeable in bankruptcy on the grounds the code lists;
• currently on parole or probation, including house arrest or a tracking device;
• an outstanding arrest warrant from any jurisdiction;
• a current protective order based on physical or sexual abuse.

Read the definition itself before deciding about a specific person. This list is a summary for a recruiting conversation, not a ruling on anyone.

Rules at the door — and three of them bind exempt reps too

• Hours. “It shall be unlawful for any person, whether licensed or not, to solicit at a residence before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, unless the solicitor has express prior permission from the resident to do so” (6.09.190).
• Signs. A rep checks every residence for a sign and does not knock where one is posted (6.09.170; 6.09.180(1)–(2)). The definition is wider than most reps assume: “No Soliciting,” “No Solicitors,” “No Salespersons,” “No Trespassing,” “or words of similar import” (6.09.030). Brief the team on the fourth one.
• What the rep says first. Immediately: their name, the name and address of the company, and why they are there — which the code says “may be satisfied through the use of the badge and an informational flyer.” No alias, and nothing implying the city endorses the product (6.09.160).
• Leaving. Asked to leave, the rep leaves immediately; after a clear, unequivocal no, the rep stops pitching (6.09.180(4) and (7)).
• The contract. Every home solicitation sale needs the buyer’s signature on a written three-business-day right-to-cancel notice in the form Utah Code 70C-5-103 requires (6.09.200). The statute’s wording is quoted in full on the sixteen-city permit reference.
• The penalty. A violation of any part of the chapter is a class B misdemeanor (6.09.210).

The hours, the sign rule and the duties at the door — 6.09.170, 6.09.180 and 6.09.190 — apply to people exempt from registration as well (6.09.040(2)). “We’re exempt” is never an answer to a 9:15 p.m. knock.

When a rep switches companies or products mid-season

A Provo certificate names the rep and the company, and it does not transfer. A rep who starts selling different goods or services, or for a different company, files a written change request with the Licensing Officer. The new certificate runs only for what was left on the old one, and the rep buys a revised badge first (6.09.130). If you are recruiting an experienced rep away from another team in July, that is one more counter visit and one more badge fee before they knock for you.

Who does not need a certificate

Exempt from registration under 6.09.040: someone the resident invited before arrival; someone whose Utah state license, permit, certificate or registration already permits door-to-door solicitation; delivery or service on an order already placed; religious or political advocacy; and people representing a charitable organization, including students with written school approval and a current student photo ID. Most home-services sales reps fall under none of these; the one worth checking is the state-license exemption, because a Utah license that itself permits door-to-door solicitation does count. None of them lifts the hours or the sign rule.

What Provo does not publish — ask, and write the answer down

1. Where the badge photograph is taken, and whether it can be done the same visit as the application. Answer ______________
2. Whether the online application replaces the paper form, or only starts it before the counter visit. Answer ______________
3. Whether the special events sales tax number and the Department of Commerce registration can be the company’s for every rep, as the code allows, or whether the counter wants anything more. Answer ______________

Provo 311 Customer Service, per the city’s own site: 311 inside city limits, (801) 852-6000 outside, Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., 445 W Center Street. Clerk’s name ______________   Date called ______________

What to do today

Before the first recruit signs, put the company’s Utah Department of Commerce registration and special events sales tax number into one PDF every rep can print, and send each recruit the BCI request link the same day they commit. Then call 311 with the three questions above and write the answers on this page’s blank lines.

Working another city? The permit lookup has 252, one card each. For a city nobody has checked, the City Clerk Call Sheet is the eight questions to ask. The sixteen-city permit reference quotes the ordinances at length.

Sources, checked 13 September 2026

• Provo City Code, Chapter 6.09 Solicitation
• Provo City Consolidated Fee Schedule, Business Licensing (“Solicitors”)
• Provo City, Solicitor Permit
• Provo City, Solicitors Permit FAQ

The Provo City Code is current through Ordinance 2026-17, passed June 9, 2026. This is orientation, not legal advice — confirm anything you are about to spend money on with the city.

Correction. Until 13 September 2026 this site gave Provo’s fee as $76 for the license and badge together, quoting the city’s old licensing page at provo.org. That page no longer loads — the city’s site is now provo.gov — and the city’s current Consolidated Fee Schedule lists $72 per solicitor and $10 per badge. The fee schedule is the figure used here, and the correction notice says what else changed.