Lafayette, IN Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Lafayette Municipal Code Chapter 4.08 defines a pawnbroker in Section 4.08.010 as any person who loans money on the deposit or pledge of personal property or other valuable thing. Section 4.08.020 makes it unlawful to engage in the pawnbroker business, or to accept property as security for a debt without a mortgage, without a license, which the City Controller issues on payment of a $50.00 annual fee (or part-year fee) and which expires on the last day of the year issued. Section 4.08.030 requires every pawnbroker to keep a book written in ink recording, at the time of each loan, an accurate description of the goods pawned, the amount loaned, the time received, and the name and residence of the person pawning the item; no entry may be erased, obliterated, or defaced.

Section 4.08.040 gives the Chief of Police or a delegated officer the right to investigate that book and any pledged item at all reasonable times, and to remove pledged articles to the police office for inspection. Section 4.08.050 requires a daily report: every pawnbroker must deliver to the Chief of Police, before noon each day, a correct copy from the required book of everything received on deposit the preceding day, with the hour received. Section 4.08.060 then bars selling, redeeming, or removing pledged property from the pawnbroker's place of business for 24 hours after that daily report is delivered.

Section 4.08.070 flatly prohibits taking or receiving any property by pawn or pledge, or for money loaned, from a minor, or property owned or claimed by a minor, or in a minor's possession or control. The chapter cross-references Section 9.01.050's separate disinfection and permit rule for secondhand goods sales.