Brookhaven, GA Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Section 15-313 of the Brookhaven Code covers every kind of selling, soliciting, canvassing, or survey-making that requires going from door to door or house to house in the residential areas of the city. It applies on a temporary or a permanent basis, and whether the work is for a religious, charitable, nonprofit, or profit-making organization. The police department issues the permit.

The application starts with a police questionnaire under section 15-314. It asks for name, local address and telephone number, date and place of birth, driver's license number, Social Security number if different, race and sex, height and weight, eye and hair color, the organization represented, the name and telephone number of an immediate supervisor, the product or service, and a list of all arrests, convictions, and dispositions other than minor traffic violations. Under section 15-315 the police department screens for a felony or a misdemeanor involving violence or moral turpitude, and the finance department approves a properly completed application. The applicant then obtains a business license, pays the license fee, and pays a permit fee set by action of the city council before the police department photographs the applicant and issues the card.

Each permit expires one year from the date of issue, and renewal applications are accepted after the 60th day preceding expiration (section 15-316). Section 15-319 bars a permit for a misdemeanor involving violence or moral turpitude within five years before the application, and for any felony unless the person was pardoned or has been free from legal restriction for five or more years. A charge suspends the permit and a conviction revokes it. The card belongs to the city and goes back to the police department within three business days of expiration, suspension, or revocation (section 15-320). Section 15-321 routes appeals through section 15-49.

Conduct rules apply at the door too. More than two individuals soliciting the same premises at the same time is unlawful (section 15-276), a second call at the same premises for identical goods or services within a consecutive two-week period needs a prior invitation (section 15-278), and solicitation happens at the main entrance only (section 15-279).