Rochester, NY Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Chapter 62 of the Municipal Code otherwise requires anyone selling goods on a public street, sidewalk or place to hold a solicitor's license from the City Clerk, but § 62-13A carves out an exemption for garage sales, basement sales, porch sales and yard sales held on a person's own premises, so long as the premises is not a regular place of business for buying or selling goods. That exemption is conditioned on frequency: the same person or persons cannot run more than two such sales on the same premises within one calendar year, and no single sale can run longer than 10 consecutive days.

A related exemption in § 62-13B covers homemade food or drink sold at a residence by the owner or occupant, provided no commercial vending unit is used and the combined table or display area does not exceed four feet wide by eight feet long. Because the garage sale carve-out sits inside Chapter 62's licensing article, a sale that exceeds the two-per-year cap or runs past 10 consecutive days falls outside the exemption altogether, meaning the seller is treated as an unlicensed solicitor under the chapter's general licensing requirements.

The rule applies citywide and is not tied to a particular zoning district; it turns solely on the number and length of sales at that address during the calendar year, tracked person-by-person rather than address-by-address.