Whatcom County, WA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

010 and last amended by Ordinance 93-080, governs junk dealers, secondhand dealers, and pawnbrokers operating outside the boundaries of any incorporated city in the county. 010(B) defines a "pawnbroker" as any person, firm or corporation within Whatcom County, and outside city limits, who loans money on the collateral security of chattels which are delivered as pawns and are sold when unredeemed. 020 then requires every pawnbroker, along with every junk dealer and secondhand dealer defined in the same section, to pay an annual license fee set out in the Whatcom County Unified Fee Schedule, the county's consolidated fee ordinance covering dozens of permit and license categories rather than a dollar figure fixed in the code text.

010(A). 010(B) is built around the loan-against-collateral pawn transaction, a Whatcom County pawnbroker's obligation is distinct from a secondhand dealer's, who instead buys and resells used property outright; the two categories share the same chapter and fee mechanism but are defined and licensed as separate lines of business. 20, is reserved with no substantive text, so enforcement runs through the county's standard business-license process.