Pawnbrokers and second-hand dealer licences

A pawnbroker licence allows you to do all of the following:

• lend money on the security of pawned items
• take items under a contract for sale where the seller has a right to buy back the goods.

Operating a pawnbroking business

As a licensed pawnbroker, you must do all of the following:

• conduct your business fairly and ensure there is adequate management, supervision and control of the business operations
• maintain employment records for employees who enter into contracts on behalf of your business and provide their records to police on request - the records must include your employee's full name, residential address and date of birth, a photograph you can certify is of your employee, and a record of your employee's application for employment
• store the pawned goods securely
• keep copies of pawn tickets and affidavits for at least one year
• before lending money, ensure the pawn ticket setting out the contract conditions is signed by parties to the contract
• only enter into contracts with people over 18 years old, unaffected by alcohol or drugs, after checking their full name, address and identity 
• for contracts for compact discs, record the title of the disc and the name of the artist as soon as the information becomes available to your business
• for each contract, record the details in electronic form or in a bound book and use a distinguishing number for each contract.
• for each transaction, record all of the following:
  • a description of the goods pawned
  • money lent in respect of each of the pawned goods
  • interest to be paid on the money lent - expressed as a percentage rate and in dollar terms to be paid each week or month as the case may be
  • charges that may become payable - eg: in the event of the sale of the goods
  • the redemption period if it is longer than one month
  • amount of any repayment made towards the loan
  • the address where the goods will be located during the redemption period
  • if the goods are redeemed, the date of the redemption
  • if unredeemed goods are sold, the date of sale.