Elkhart County, IN Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Chapter 115 of the Elkhart County Code creates a registration system for precious metal dealers in the unincorporated area, run entirely by the County Sheriff rather than a licensing board. 01 requires a dealer to submit a fresh registration every 12 months for each permanent place of business it owns or leases, listing the dealer's name, the business address, and whatever additional information the Sheriff specifies, along with a $50 registration fee. A dealer that registers more than one permanent location still owes just $50 total, not $50 per site.

02 gives the Sheriff authority to design the registration form itself and to decide what other information dealers must supply. 03 routes every fee the Sheriff collects to the County Treasurer for deposit in the General Fund, so registration functions as county revenue rather than a Sheriff's-office fund. C. 24-4-19-16 have to go to the Sheriff in an electronic format the Sheriff reasonably specifies, not on paper. C. 24-4-19, directing that any term the chapter uses which that statute defines carries the statute's definition. Because the ordinance covers only dealers 'located in the unincorporated area of the county,' a shop inside Goshen, Elkhart, Bristol, Middlebury, Nappanee or another incorporated town answers to that city's or town's own licensing code instead, not to Chapter 115.