Security guarding - apply for a permit

You must apply for the permit at the relevant office.

Once you have submitted the application and all the documents are complete, the competent body will check whether you meet all the requirements.

If you meet all the requirements, you will receive the permit.

You may not begin the activity until you have received permission.

In the case of legal entities (e.g. GmbH, Unternehmensgesellschaften, AG, registered cooperatives), you only need to complete the application form for the legal entity itself. You must submit all personal documents for all natural persons authorized to represent you (e.g. identity card). For the legal entity, you will also need an extract from the Central Business Register.

Partnerships (GbR, KG, OHG, PartG, GmbH & Co. KG) are not eligible for a permit as such. Therefore, each managing partner requires the permit. For each of these persons, you must submit a completed application form and all personal documents.

In order for you to be granted permission under the Trade Regulation Act, you must

• have the reliability required for the business operation.
• live in orderly financial circumstances.
• prove their personal expertise and the expertise of the person in charge of managing the business or a branch office by successfully passing an expertise examination before the Chamber of Industry and Commerce or an equivalent qualification, and
• provide proof of the required liability insurance.

The personal requirements for permission (reliability, orderly financial circumstances, successfully passed examination of expertise) must be fulfilled by the trader or by the legal representatives of a legal entity. The necessary expertise must also be demonstrated for a person entrusted with the management of the business or a branch office.

They may only employ persons (guards) to carry out guarding tasks who have the necessary reliability and can prove by means of a certificate from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce that they have been instructed in and are familiar with the legal and technical principles necessary for carrying out the trade. For the performance of certain activities (e.g. the guarding of asylum reception facilities and the guarding of access-protected large-scale events, in each case in a managerial capacity), instead of the proof of the aforementioned instruction, the proof of a successfully passed expert knowledge examination before the Chamber of Industry and Commerce is required.

• Copy of identity card or passport with registration certificate, or presentation on site. For legal entities for all natural persons authorized to represent them

• Proof of personal reliability
  • If resident in Germany:
    • Extract from the central commercial register for submission to an authority pursuant to Section 150 (5) of the Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung)
    • Certificate of good conduct for submission to an authority (document type O)
  • If resident abroad: documents from the home country proving personal reliability
• Proof of entrepreneurial legal form
  • with company headquarters in Germany:
    • for companies registered in a register: Excerpt from the commercial, cooperative or association register
    • otherwise a copy of the partnership agreement (e.g. in the case of a partnership under civil law (GbR))
  • if the company is domiciled abroad: documents from the country of domicile proving the legal form.
• Proof of orderly financial circumstances, e.g.:
  • current certificate in tax matters from the responsible tax office (to be submitted in the original); if applicable, certificate in tax matters from the municipal tax office
  • Extract from the debtors' register of the central enforcement court
  • Submission of a statement of assets
  • Information from the insolvency court as to whether proceedings have been opened (so-called negative certificate)
• Proof of personal expertise: Proof of expertise must be provided by the trader and the persons entrusted with the management of the business or its branch; in the case of legal entities, the legal representatives must possess expertise if they are directly involved in the performance of guarding tasks or no person entrusted with the management of the business or a branch has proof of expertise; in the case of partnerships, the managing shareholders

• Proof of the conclusion of the required liability insurance

In order to verify the necessary prerequisites (in particular personal reliability), the competent body may request further documents and obtain statements from other authorities (e.g. police, State Criminal Police Office, Office for the Protection of the Constitution).

• § 34a paragraph1 Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act (GewO)
• Ordinance on the guarding trade (Bewachungsverordnung - BewachV)

If you have not resided in the country or the EU in the last 3 years and therefore your "reliability" cannot be sufficiently verified, you cannot obtain a permit.

You must notify the competent authority via the security guard register of the persons you wish to employ as security guards or appoint to manage the business or a branch office prior to employment.

At the request of the authorities, the persons concerned must provide the information required to monitor business operations. Furthermore, the authorities are authorized to enter the business premises in order to carry out inspections and visits.

Violation of the obligation to obtain a permit and violation of an enforceable condition or an enforceable order prohibiting the employment of a person due to unreliability may be punished as administrative offenses with a fine. Violation of obligations related to employment of persons shall also be considered administrative offenses.