Tempe, AZ Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)
Key Facts
- License required from
- Financial Services Director, issued annually
- Background check
- Police Chief review plus FBI fingerprint check
- Transaction report
- Filed with police within 24 hours
- Holding period
- 20 days before resale (§ 16A-4)
- Redemption exempt
- Owner redeeming own pawn is excepted
- Civil sanction
- Up to $2,500 per violation (§ 16A-26(f))
- Suspension trigger
- 6 months for 3 convictions in 12 months
Summary
Tempe requires anyone operating as a pawnbroker to hold an annual license from the Financial Services Director, backed by a Police Chief background check and fingerprinting. Pawned items must be reported to police within 24 hours and held 20 days before resale, though redemptions by the original owner are exempt from that holding period.
Pawnbrokers means any person engaged in conducting, managing or carrying on the business of pawnbroking, or the business of loaning money for themselves or for any other person, receiving as security for the repayment thereof, pawns or pledges of personal property, or the business of purchasing personal property and reselling or agreeing to resell such articles to vendors, their personal representatives or their assignees, at prices agreed upon at or before the time of such purchase, whether such business be principal or sole business so carried on, managed or conducted, or merely incidental to, in connection with or a branch or department of some other business or businesses. ... (a)It shall be unlawful for any person to act within the City as an auction house, scrap dealer, pawnbroker or secondhand dealer without first obtaining a license to do so from the Financial Services Director or their authorized representative.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: City Code: Supplement 33 Update 4 | Zoning and Development Code: Supplement 11 Update 2).
Full Breakdown
Section 16A-1 defines a pawnbroker as anyone 'engaged in conducting, managing or carrying on the business of pawnbroking, or the business of loaning money for themselves or for any other person, receiving as security for the repayment thereof, pawns or pledges of personal property,' or buying and reselling personal property at a pre-agreed price. Section 16A-26(a) makes it 'unlawful for any person to act within the City as an auction house, scrap dealer, pawnbroker or secondhand dealer without first obtaining a license,' issued annually by the Financial Services Director, with the fee set by City Council resolution in Appendix A.
Section 16A-27 requires the Police Chief to investigate the applicant's character and recommend approval or denial within 30 days, denying anyone with a felony or moral-turpitude misdemeanor conviction; a denial can be appealed to the City Council within 10 days. Section 16A-9 requires every pawnbroker owner or manager to submit fingerprints for a state and FBI records check before the license issues. Once licensed, § 16A-3 requires a report of every pawn transaction to the Chief of Police within 24 hours, capturing the pledgor's ID, description and serial numbers, and § 16A-4 bars resale or exchange of a pawned item for 20 days after that report, though that holding period 'shall not apply to redemption of pawned articles' by the original owner reclaiming their own property.
Violations & Fines
Operating without a license, or violating the reporting, holding-period or fingerprinting rules, exposes a pawnbroker to a civil sanction of up to $2,500 per violation under § 16A-26(f), unless the shop shows the error was a bona fide clerical or computer mistake. A pawnbroker convicted of violating this article or a related state statute three or more times in 12 months faces a mandatory six-month license suspension under § 16A-28, and a licensee cannot knowingly employ anyone whose license was previously revoked.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Official References
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