Every business — whether it’s an LLC, a partnership, or a corporation — that registers with the Secretary of State of Oregon is required to designate a Registered Agent.
A Registered Agent must be located at a physical address and be available during business hours to receive official and critical legal documents on behalf of your business. You can act as your own registered agent, but unless your business has a space or office that is open to the public, you might end up giving the Secretary of State your home address — which means your home address will be available online for anyone to find.
If your business interacts with any persons who might not like what you do (e.g., property manager, attorney, etc.), it will be important to both your privacy and safety that you choose a registered agent to act on your behalf. You don’t want someone who is angry with you to come to your home and confront you.
Using a registered agent is one aspect of keeping your personal address private. You will also need to designate a “principle place of business,” which we can offer you here at BIZ CUBE.
If your business is mobile and you are not located in a permanent location with employees that can act as registered agent for you, you will need to designate a 3rd party as your registered agent.
ORS 60.111 says your registered agent can not have its address at a CMRA (Commercial Mail Receiving Agent) like the UPS Store or Mailboxes etc. This is because the employees of those establishments are not authorized to accept legal service of process and do not have time to alert you that you’ve received important documents.
While BIZ CUBE does offer virtual office and mail forwarding services, we also have two designated individuals who are authorized to accept legal documents on your behalf and who will advise you immediately upon receipt of those documents so you can respond appropriately.
We also make sure that you receive other important legal notices from government agencies so that you stay compliant with all rules and statutes.
What happens if your registered agent isn’t available during
regular business hours to accept legal documents on your behalf?
If a process server is unable to serve legal documents to your registered agent, they will issue a Proof of Non-Service which then allows an entity to serve you via the Secretary of State’s office. Once that happens, the lawsuit or demand is considered officially served and may proceed through the courts without any further action on behalf of the plaintiff. In addition, the Secretary of State may administratively dissolve your business.