The Doorstep Playbook

Door-to-Door Permit Rules in Tennessee: 6 Cities Checked

So far 6 cities in Tennessee have been checked. Each one links to its own card, which cites the ordinance and shows the date it was checked.

Chattanooga

  • Permit: No door-to-door solicitor or peddler permit was found in the Chattanooga City Code.
  • Fee: None for door-to-door sales, because there is no door-to-door permit. For the general business license the city's page says "Initial business tax registration only $15" and that a Hamilton County business license is needed as well.
  • Hours you may knock: Not set. No section of the code sets knocking hours for residential door-to-door sales. Chapter 25 only restricts "soliciting anything whatsoever" inside privately owned business-office buildings after the owner says to leave (25-16).
  • Checked: 19 September 2026

Clarksville

  • Permit: Yes. The city defines PEDDLER to include anyone going house to house or place to place selling or offering goods, wares, merchandise, or services, and the word "expressly includes solicitors" (§ 5-201).
  • Fee: $165 non-refundable administrative processing fee per applicant, per year (§ 5-203(d)).
  • Hours you may knock: Daylight hours only, Monday through Saturday. The code bars peddler activity "from dusk of one day through dawn of the next day," citing National Weather Service sunset/sunrise times, and states the intent is that "door-to-door sales occur only during daylight hours" (§ 5-214(a)).
  • Checked: 19 September 2026

Knoxville

  • Permit: No stand-alone permit.
  • Fee: None. The division that regulates commercial door-to-door solicitation (§§ 16-441–16-446) sets no permit and so sets no fee for it.
  • Hours you may knock: 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time “of any weekday” — and no solicitation at any time on a Sunday or on a state or national holiday (§ 16-446). The section does not mention Saturday by name.
  • Checked: 19 September 2026

Memphis

Partly read: the permit answer is sourced, but the fee or the hours could not be read from the city’s own pages.

  • Permit: No city door-to-door permit was found.
  • Fee: None found for knocking. The city code sets no door-to-door permit fee.
  • Hours you may knock: Not published. No section of the Memphis code that could be found sets hours for residential door-to-door sales.
  • Checked: 18 September 2026

Murfreesboro

  • Permit: No door-to-door permit is in the Murfreesboro code.
  • Fee: No solicitor permit, so no permit fee. For the business license the city's page says: "The initial license is $15 and is payable to the city and county." It lists an exception for a business that does not gross $3,000 annually in receipts. The page does not say how it treats an out-of-town company with reps in the field.
  • Hours you may knock: The code sets no knocking hours for commercial door-to-door sales. The "after sunset and before sunrise" ban in 21-5.3(C) applies only to solicitation as that section defines it, a request for a donation. The noise article bars yelling or shouting while "hawking, peddling, or otherwise advertising or selling goods or services" in a residential area at any time (21-108); that is a noise rule, not a curfew.
  • Checked: 19 September 2026

Nashville and Davidson County

  • Permit: Yes — and it is two documents.
  • Fee: $50 company permit; $63 for the badge application and background check; $20 for the badge itself.
  • Hours you may knock: No official source stating them was reached.
  • Checked: 4 September 2026

Back to the Permit Lookup

City not on this list? The City Clerk Call Sheet has the eight questions to ask any city.