Tulare County, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Section 6-19-1020 states plainly that "any person engaging in the junk business or in the itinerant junk business within the County shall have a valid license" issued under the general business-licensing chapter, Chapter 1 of Part VI. The ordinance covers both a fixed-location junk dealer and an "itinerant junk business," defined as operating without a fixed location by soliciting or collecting junk while traveling from place to place; a business based in a city or another county that comes into the unincorporated area to buy or collect junk is still covered and is not treated as itinerant if it has a fixed base elsewhere, per section 6-19-1030.

Section 6-19-1040 requires every vehicle used in the itinerant junk business to carry the licensee's name and telephone number in contrasting letters at least two inches tall on both sides. the following day, a restriction aimed at stolen-property fencing after dark. A separate annual fee applies for each noncontiguous storage yard or location, and a separate itinerant vehicle fee is charged per vehicle under section 6-19-2010, both set by Board of Supervisors resolution. Charitable, patriotic, educational, or fraternal organizations collecting junk for their own benefit are exempt from licensing under section 6-19-1050, provided drivers and helpers carry identification cards. This license does not double as a refuse-hauling license: anyone collecting refuse still needs the separate license required under Part IV, Chapter 3.