Chesapeake licenses itinerant merchants — including door-to-door sellers — under City Code § 18-133. In place of the standard ownership affidavit, the assessing official (the Commissioner of the Revenue) may issue the license against a bond equal to the license tax the merchant owes for the year. Pricing is 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum. The bond issues the moment you pay — no credit review of any kind, not even a soft pull.
















No underwriting queue for the standard itinerant merchant bond — enter your amount, pay, and file with the Commissioner of the Revenue. Here is the whole thing:
Your business details, the bond amount equal to your license tax, and the effective date — that is the entire application.
The application collects no credit information, and most applicants are approved and issued as soon as they pay.
Submit the executed bond with your Chesapeake itinerant merchant license application. Wet-ink originals mailed on request.
Chesapeake City Code § 18-132 taxes peddlers and itinerant merchants who sell door to door or from temporary premises — $50 a year for food, plants, or flowers, and $500 a year for other goods, unless they fall under one of the section's exemptions. City Code § 18-133 normally requires an itinerant merchant to file an owner's affidavit proving the length of their lease or tenancy before a license issues.
As an alternative to that affidavit, § 18-133 lets the assessing official (the Commissioner of the Revenue) issue a regular merchant's license against a bond or security equal to the specific tax the applicant would owe for a full year. The bond pays the city that amount if the office later finds evidence the applicant only ever intended a temporary or transient business in Chesapeake.
It's a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the City of Chesapeake (the obligee). It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Enter the amount equal to your license tax and your premium is priced from a $100 minimum, with no credit information collected on the application.
These are the actual underwriting fields. The application collects no credit information, and your price — from a $100 minimum — is set at application.
Start the application →Pricing from $100, no credit review. Enter your license-tax amount and file the same day.