Howard County, MD Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Sec. 1001 defines a pawnbroker transaction as lending money on the pledge of personal property, or buying property on condition of reselling it to the seller at a set price. Sec. 1002 requires both an establishment license and, separately, an employee license for anyone who conducts pawn transactions; neither license can be transferred between people or businesses (Sec. 1004). Licenses run for two years (Sec. 1005) and applications require notarized statements under penalty of perjury, a full set of fingerprints from the Howard County Police Department, Social Security numbers and three years of address history, and disclosure of any license denied, suspended, or revoked in another jurisdiction; applicants under 18 are ineligible (Sec.

1008). The Director must approve an application unless information is false or incomplete, the applicant has a disqualifying felony or moral-turpitude conviction, another jurisdiction has denied or pulled a related license, or the premises fails health, zoning, fire, or building code review (Sec. 1009). and cannot use drive-up windows (Sec. 1010). the next business day (Sec. 1012). Items must be held at least ten days, or until police inspection, before resale, though a shorter hold can be requested and is deemed approved if police don't respond within 120 hours (Sec. 1013).