I can’t remember if I’ve posted this on here before, but I wanted to make sure that everyone knows La Vergne’s rules regarding door to door solicitation.
Anyone who comes to your door to sell something, either for profit or for charity, has to have a permit that can be obtained at city hall. I don’t have an electronic copy, but it is a full 8 1/2 X 11 page with information on who they are and what they are selling. If someone comes to your door unexpectedly to sell something, ask them to show their permit. If they are unwilling to show this, just close the door. Even if they have a permit that doesn’t mean you have to buy, but it does mean they are legit. If you get someone who has no permit, call the police (not 9-1-1, but 615-793-7744). I have people selling pest control, security alarms, and satellite dishes knock on my door all the time and until recently I had no idea these people had to have a permit. I think most do, but this should help eliminate a lot of door knockers…
As far as school kids selling in the neighborhood, I think technically they are required to have a permit, but if little suzy is selling candy bars for Rock Springs and she’s accompinied by an adult, I’m not call the possie on her.
Also, another random comment. Occasionally people will post comments on old posts and administrators see old posts so I’ll often catch them. ChefEleni is a caterer whose been in town for 4 years and she’s looking for an affordable place to open a sit-down restaurant in our town. If anyone has any idea’s of a good, affordable location, she would appreciate the input.
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This is La Vergne, TN 
Yeah these permits are a good thing, we had to have them a few years ago when we were going door to door during our picture drive/street signs.
The alarm company guy came by my house, It never dawned on me to ask for his permit, but after talking to his supervisors on the phone, he was legit enough for me.
My director had some younger gentleman offering free carpet cleaning to him, as they did me, he pulled the permit question on them, needless to say it through them for a loop. One of them even offered up his ID while he had PD on the phone checking him, that surprised PD.
MichaelinLV,
Thanks so much for the shout out regarding my post from yesterday. I would really love the opportunity to expand my business into a sit down restaurant in LaVergne. I seriously feel the town needs it. I hope that everyone who views this site and posts here will also agree and lend some support to this endeavor becoming a reality.
Thanks again!
Chef Eleni
http://www.stfcatering.com
Please no one turn me in when I go around selling Girl Scout cookies this January! :)
Another thing you can do is say “No thanks”, “I’m not interested”, or any variation on that theme. It’s always worked for me anyway.
You can get a permit for this. It doesn’t cost any money and is supposedly a simple process…
… but like I said, I’m not going to turn in local kids as long as they wear their school shirt (or GS shirt in this case!), and have a parent with them.
At the present time, no solicitation permits have been issued from the City of La Vergne to any vendors going door-to-door selling any items.
The regulations regarding door-to-door soliciting are in Title 9, Chapter 2 of the La Vergne Municipal Code (LMC). Here is a direct link to the document on the City’s website: http://www.lavergne.org/mod/fileman/files/lmc-title09.pdf
As far as I know, the City has never required school children (or Girl Scouts) to get a permit to sell for fundraisers. We have required groups like the Rescue Squad to get the permits, but we haven’t charged them the $5 for the permits or required them to put up the bond because it is a fundraiser for a non-profit organization.
The solicitation permit is aimed at people selling for a personal profit. The cost for a permit is $5 and they also have to put up a $1,000 surety bond that you can get at most insurance companies.
The City is required to do a background check, but usually nothing is ever found on the applicant because we just do a local check, not a criminal check through TBI.
(Long side note: I have been wondering if the City should increase the cost of the permit to cover the cost of doing a background check through the TBI. I think they charge something like $29. One problem with that is the current LMC states that the City only has 72 hours to do the investigation and TBI never responds that quickly. They have gotten better, but not usually in that amount of time. It is illegal for the City to run a background check through the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) because that is operated by the FBI. Only the PD can run that in criminal investigations)
If anyone ever comes to your door, please ask to see the permit. If they don’t have one, don’t buy. The $1,000 bond that the City requires is there to protect the citizen’s from being ripped off. If you are sold something and do not get what you have paid for, contact the City (me) and we can start the process to call the bond and hopefully get your money back. We have never had to do this in the past, but the regulations are there for a reason.
If you are suspicious of the people going door-to-door, call the Police Dept. and they will come out and check to see if they have a permit and will tell them what to do to have a permit issued to them.
There is also a charitable solicitation permit that can be issued to churches or religious groups to raise funds. There are some specific requirements for that as well. They are located in LMC Title 9, Chapter 3. We don’t get too many of these.
The other big type of fundraiser for charitable groups is a roadblock at a traffic intersection. Those have to be approved by the City Council. Once again those have specific regulations and they are found in Title 9, Chapter 3 (Section 9-307) of the LMC.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me.
Bruce E. Richardson
City Recorder
City of La Vergne
brichardson@lavergne.org
Wow Bruce, thanks for the update! The info I used is from our neighborhood watch meeting, so maybe I forgot some details.
I said that schools were included because we were told that even non-profits had to have a permit, but if you say no permit for school kids, that’s good enough for me.
I agree that the law should be changed and fee’s increased to cover a TBI check. Someone scam artest could rip off durham, NC, and then come try the same thing in LV and we wouldn’t have a clue! That souds like a law ripe for abuse. Senna, I hope you’re reading!
One more thing Bruce, can you tell us all how many solicitation permits were issued in the past 12 months? That would help give us an idea how many people actually go through the legal channels. Thanks again for your insight.
You know, I hadn’t thought about standing at the intersection of Stones River and M’boro Road for Brandon Brewer. Has anyone done this?