New Orleans, LA Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Sec. 130-36 of the New Orleans Code of Ordinances defines "secondhand dealer or store" broadly, then carves out five exclusions from that definition, including item (4): private residential sales commonly known as "garage sales" or "yard sales," so long as the sale takes place at a residential address, and item (5): sales by a bona fide charity holding a valid 501(c)(3) exemption. Because these transactions fall outside the definition entirely, the operator is not a "secondhand dealer" for purposes of Chapter 130 and does not need the permit, the purchase ledger required of licensed dealers under Sec.

130-37, or the daily report to the superintendent of police that licensed secondhand and junk operations must file. The exemption is narrow: it covers only a genuinely private, residential, occasional sale. A person conducting recurring resale activity, buying and reselling merchandise as a business, or holding a sale away from a residential address falls back under the general secondhand-dealer definition and must comply with the buyer restrictions in Sec. 130-4, no purchases from minors under 18, intoxicated persons, or known thieves, and the recordkeeping in Sec.

130-37. Separately, the city's mayoralty-permit fee schedule at Sec. 00 per event "to give a rummage sale," a different permit track for organized public rummage sales rather than private-address garage sales, so a church or club rummage sale held off a residential address is not automatically covered by the Sec. 130-36 exemption. Homeowners planning a one-time driveway or yard sale at their own address do not need to contact the department of finance or the New Orleans Police Department at all under this article.