Pawnbroking - Apply for a permit

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If you want to work as a pawnbroker, you must provide special security and proof.

• You must provide proof of necessary funds or collateral for the first six months. These can be balances or a bank guarantee.
• You must also take out insurance against fire damage, water damage, burglary and robbery and present it when you apply. A safe must be available for jewelry.
• You must secure your premises against burglary by means of an alarm system.
• In the case of car pawn shops, the question of the possible environmental hazards caused by the parking areas of the vehicles must be clarified.

Permission will be refused if:

• Facts justify the assumption that the applicant does not possess the reliability required for the business to be carried out. As a rule, a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for a crime, theft, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, breach of trust, forgery of documents, receiving stolen goods, usury or for an offence against the law against unfair competition in the last five years prior to the filing of the application does not possess this reliability.
• The applicant fails to provide evidence of the funds required for the business or the corresponding collateral.

• Identity card or comparable identification document (copy)
• Non-EU citizens: residence permit (copy)
• Proof of entrepreneurial legal form
  • Company headquarters in Germany:
    • in the case of registered companies: excerpt from the commercial register and, if applicable, a copy of the articles of association (e.g. in the case of a partnership under civil law (GbR))
  • Registered office abroad: Documents from this country proving the legal form.
• Proof of personal reliability
  • Residence in Germany:
    • Certificate of good conduct
    • Excerpt from the Central Trade Register for natural and, if applicable, legal persons
  • Residence abroad: documents from your home country proving that you have the personal reliability to perform the requested service
  • On a case-by-case basis, the authority may request further documents that are suitable to make a statement about your personal reliability as an applicant.
• Proof of funds and collateral required for operation
  • Residence in Germany:
    • Excerpt from the list of debtors
    • Information from the insolvency register
  • Residence abroad: documents from your home country as proof that you have the necessary funds and collateral
• Social
• Floor plan of the premises intended for commercial operation

The fee can be up to €230 in Lower Saxony

• § 1 para. 1 General Fee Ordinance (AllGO)

You must apply for permission to operate a business as a pawnbroker or pawnbroker from the competent authority.

After the exam, you will receive either permission or a rejection notice. A permit may be subject to certain conditions.

You must apply for the permit before starting the activity. Only after the permit has been granted are you entitled to practice the trade.

At the start of the business, the pawnbroker must notify the competent authority of the premises he or she uses for the business; furthermore, he/she must immediately notify the company of any change in the premises used for the business.

The pawnbroker is obliged to keep accounts.

• § 34 Industrial Code (GewO)
• Ordinance on the Business Operations of Commercial Pawnbrokers (Pawnbroker Ordinance - PfandlV)

In Lower Saxony, a preliminary procedure is not provided for by § 80 of the Lower Saxony Justice Act. Therefore, no objection is admissible, but rather an administrative court action must be brought directly.