Meriden, CT Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Chapter 156, Peddling and Soliciting, traces back to the City's 1963 Code and licenses two categories of door-to-door business. Section 156-1 defines a PEDDLER as anyone who sells, offers to sell, vends, hawks, or barters goods, wares, or merchandise on Meriden's streets, sidewalks, public places, or house to house, and a SOLICITOR as anyone who goes place to place seeking orders for future delivery of goods, merchandise, magazines, or services. No one may act as either without first obtaining a license from the Chief of Police, though § 156-1C exempts newspaper carriers, farmers and gardeners selling their own produce, delivery of milk, tea, coffee, and bakery goods, and registered representatives of tax-exempt nonprofits, and § 156-1D exempts anyone who has had a regular Meriden place of business in the preceding 12 months.

Section 156-2 sets the application requirements: a sworn form to the Chief of Police disclosing residence, a physical description with two recent photographs, a Connecticut sales tax permit, the nature of the business, any criminal convictions, and proof of insurance; the Chief may issue the license within 10 days, the fee is $150, and the license expires one year after issuance. Section 156-3 makes the license personal and non-transferable, and § 156-4 requires the license number to be displayed on any vehicle used under it.

Under § 156-9, the Chief of Police may suspend or revoke a license after written notice and a hearing for violating any law tied to the licensed activity, and any violation of the chapter carries a fine of $50 to $90.