West Palm Beach, Florida: 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: Probably, but with a real gap: West Palm Beach's "Peddlers" article defines a peddler as anyone traveling "from place to place, from house to house, or from street to street, carrying, conveying or transporting goods, wares, merchandise, food" and other produce, "offering and exposing such articles for sale, or making sales and delivering articles to purchasers," which requires a police-issued identification card (22-251, 22-271). The definition is built around carrying or delivering physical goods, though, and does not use the word "services" the way some other cities' ordinances do — whether a rep who only takes signed orders for a service like fiber, security or pest control (never carrying or delivering anything) is covered is genuinely unclear from the text alone. The only order-taker the definition names is one who "solicits orders and, as a separate transaction, makes deliveries to purchasers as a part of a scheme or design to evade the provisions of this chapter" (22-251).
• Where it comes from: The identification card comes from the West Palm Beach Police Department (22-271, 22-272). A separate business certificate of registration, from the city's business tax official, may also apply to someone without a permanent business location in the city (22-101).
• Fee: Not published in the code — the police department "may charge an administrative fee established by resolution" (22-272(c)), but that resolution's dollar figure could not be found on the city's own site.
• Hours you may knock: Not published. Article VI has location restrictions (a defined "downtown area," special-event buffers) but no clock-time hours provision for peddling anywhere in the city.
• What the rep carries: The police-issued peddler identification card, shown at the request of any citizen at all times while working (22-273).
• What takes the time: A police background investigation before the card issues; the police chief may refuse a card to anyone convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude within the previous five years (22-272).
• Code: West Palm Beach Code of Ordinances, Chapter 22, Article VI — Peddlers (§§ 22-251–22-275).
• Worth knowing: Peddling on public streets or sidewalks is barred in the defined "Downtown Area" of the city, except at the Green Market or with special-event approval (22-253(b)). A card can be revoked for fraud, a breach-of-the-peace style violation, or a dishonesty conviction within the last five years (22-274).
• Read it yourself: West Palm Beach Code of Ordinances, Chapter 22, Article VI — Peddlers · West Palm Beach Code of Ordinances, Chapter 22, Article III — Certificate of Registration · checked 19 September 2026

Ask the clerk, and write the answer down: Does a rep who only solicits and signs orders for a service (fiber, security, pest control) — never carrying or delivering goods — need a peddler's identification card under Article VI, or is that a different category entirely? What is the current dollar fee for the peddler's identification card? Are there set hours a peddler or door-to-door rep may knock, even though none appear in Article VI itself? Clerk’s name ______________   Direct line ______________   Date called ______________