Hobart license & permit bonds.
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When a City of Hobart license or permit calls for a bond, it runs to the city and is filed with the Clerk-Treasurer, who approves the amount under Hobart Municipal Code § 115.36 unless a Chapter 150 permit sets it. A surety specialist quotes it, usually within one business day. Hobart contractors need the Lake County unified license bond instead.
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How much does a Hobart license & permit bond cost?
It is underwritten: the premium is quoted from the bond amount and your financial picture, so there is no flat price to show.
Built around the Clerk-Treasurer’s approval.
Hobart will not issue the license or permit until the Clerk-Treasurer has approved your bond, so the bond is usually the last thing holding the application up. Here is the whole process:
Send us the file
Apply online with your business details, the license or permit the bond is for, and the bond amount the city gave you. Tell us whether it is a business license, a building-moving permit, an excavation permit or a fill permit.
A surety specialist reviews it
A specialist reviews the requirement and the amount and returns a quote. The city sets the penal sum, so the review decides approval and price, not the size of the bond.
File with the Clerk-Treasurer
Once you bind, we issue the executed bond with the power of attorney attached, naming the City of Hobart as obligee, ready to file with the Clerk-Treasurer so the license or permit can issue.
What it is and who needs it.
What the Hobart license & permit bond guarantees
Every business operating in Hobart needs a city business license under § 115.32, but most never post a bond. Section 115.36 (added by Ord. 2025-02) applies only when the designated officer, upon investigation, finds the business is one in which the citizens of the city are or may be exposed to personal injury or property damage. In that case the applicant must provide a bond and evidence of insurance, the Clerk-Treasurer approves the amount and form of both, and no license or permit issues until they are approved. Business licenses run the calendar year, January 1 to December 31 (§ 115.37), so plan to keep the bond in force for the license year.
The same city-obligee form fits the bonded permits in Chapter 150. Anyone moving a building or structure in the city (§ 150.030) must file with the Clerk-Treasurer a bond payable to the city and any person who may be damaged by the moving, in the penal sum of $5,000, conditioned on paying all public or private damages the move causes (§ 150.037). Anyone excavating sand, black dirt, gravel or other earth within city limits (§ 150.090) needs a $25,000 minimum bond that indemnifies the city, approved by the city’s Attorney, with a licensed corporate surety (§ 150.094). A Fill Permit may be conditioned on a performance bond the Plan Commission or City Engineer sizes to the scale of the operation and the cost to rehabilitate the property (§ 150.106); the permit runs one year (§ 150.107).
It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety, and the City of Hobart (the obligee). If you break the terms of the license or permit and the city, or a person the bond protects, suffers a loss, a claim can be made against the bond. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays, you repay the surety. Contractors, note: § 115.04(H) requires a Hobart contractor license applicant to show a unified license bond under IC 22-11-3.1-2, filed with the county Recorder, in lieu of any other bond for that type of work. That is the Lake County contractor bond, not this one.
You need this bond if you’re
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
Term and renewal are set in the underwriter's quote.
Keep the bond in force for as long as the obligation behind it runs.
How to file it
File with the Clerk-Treasurer. Once you bind, we issue the executed bond with the power of attorney attached, naming the City of Hobart as obligee, ready to file with the Clerk-Treasurer so the license or permit can issue.
What sets the price
This bond is underwritten: the premium is quoted from the bond amount and your financial picture, so there is no flat price to show.
One application, one underwriting review.
These are the actual issuing fields — your business details, the license or permit the bond is for, and the amount the city set. Submit once and a surety specialist reviews it and returns a quote, typically within one business day. Free until your bond is issued.
Start the application →Common questions.
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Get bonded and get your Hobart license or permit.
Tell us which license or permit the bond is for and the amount the city set, and a surety specialist underwrites and quotes it — typically within one business day. Free until issued.