Haverhill, MA Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Chapter 191, Article II, Solicitors and Canvassers, requires any person or group soliciting funds under MGL Chapter 68 or selling or offering merchandise on Haverhill's public ways, public places or private premises to register with the Chief of Police, and bars that activity after 8:00 p.m. citywide (§ 191-3). Section 191-4, added in 2003, sets the license fee at $60, which must be approved by the Police Department before the City Council grants it. Section 191-5 exempts Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, religious organizations and school fundraising drives from the registration and fee requirement entirely.

The article sits alongside Article I's separate ban on hawkers and peddlers selling within 2,000 feet of a school between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on school days (§ 191-2), and its own crying-of-wares and vehicle-condition rule (§ 191-1). Article II carries no fine schedule of its own, so an unregistered solicitor or one operating after the 8:00 p.m. cutoff falls under the Code's general penalty in § 1-16A: a fine of up to $300 per violation, with each day of continuing violation a separate offense, pursued either by criminal complaint or through the noncriminal disposition process of MGL c. 40, § 21D. The Haverhill Police Department, through the Chief of Police, administers registration and enforces the curfew and licensing requirements.