Prince William County, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Sec. 4-7(A) bars transacting pawnbroker or secondhand merchant business "regardless of the quantity" anywhere in the county without first obtaining a license from the chief of police. A pawnbroker applicant files a form disclosing name, aliases, address, age, date of birth, employer information and the intended business location, along with a sworn statement disclosing any criminal convictions or pending charges and proof of the bond Virginia Code Sec. 1-4003 requires; the applicant is fingerprinted, photographed and background-checked, and must then obtain approval from the Circuit Court of Prince William County under Virginia Code Sec.

1-4001(B) before the police department will issue the license. A secondhand merchant applicant goes through the same disclosure, fingerprinting and background check without the Circuit Court step, and that license runs one year and renews annually. Sec. 4-7(D) requires every licensed pawnbroker to also hold the secondhand merchant license each year, and Sec. 4-7(F) caps the county at "not more than twelve (12) places" where a pawnbroker may operate, a hard numeric ceiling on the number of pawn shop locations countywide. Sec. 4-7(B) and (C) bar issuing a license to anyone convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude within the past ten years, and Sec.

4-7(E) requires notifying the chief of police of any closing or reopening if the business does not operate continuously. Sec. 4-7(G) makes any violation of the licensing subsections a Class 1 misdemeanor, with each day of continued violation counted as a separate offense, a materially higher penalty than the Class 4 misdemeanor default used elsewhere in the county code.