Florida Registered Agent Service and the Registered Office Rule

Florida's term is registered agent, and the address it sits at is the registered office (section 605.0113 of the Florida Statutes). The Division of Corporations, which runs the Sunbiz website, is part of the Department of State. Florida does not use a separate Secretary of State filing office, so Sunbiz is where the agent is recorded and where every change is filed.

The agent is the place legal papers go. If a customer, vendor or former employee sues your company, the summons is delivered to the registered agent at the registered office. Under section 605.0113 the agent has to forward any process, notice or demand it receives to the company at the address most recently supplied. State reminders do not come that way: the annual report reminder goes to the email given at formation, and the Department may send a notice of intent to dissolve by email to an LLC that gave one. The Florida material below is about LLCs. We also serve corporations, LPs, LLPs and nonprofits.

Your principal office is a separate field. The Articles of Organization ask for a principal office street address and a mailing address in Article II, and the registered agent in Article III. Your business can operate from anywhere. Only the agent has to sit at a Florida street address.

Section 605.0113 allows two kinds of agent. The first is an individual who resides in Florida and whose business address is identical to the registered office. The second is a domestic or foreign authorized entity, meaning a corporation, LLC, LLP or LP that is authorized to operate in Florida, whose business address is likewise identical to the registered office.

Florida says plainly that the limited liability company cannot serve as its own registered agent. It also means a member or manager can be the agent only if that person fits the individual category, as a Florida resident with a business address that matches the registered office.

The agent also has to accept the appointment in writing. On the Articles that acceptance is the agent's signature block in Article III. Nobody can be named without signing, which protects a friend from being listed without knowing.

Article III asks for the agent's name and a Florida street address, and the form states that a P.O. box is not acceptable. The part that surprises owners is the second half of the rule: the agent's business address has to be identical to the registered office. A friend's home does not work unless that friend is a Florida resident whose business address it is.

Section 48.091(3) adds an hours rule that applies to every Florida LLC. The company has to cause its registered agent to keep the registered office open from at least 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day except Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. It also has to cause the agent to keep one or more individuals who are, or are representatives of, the agent on whom process may be served at the office during those hours.

The $125 total on a new Articles filing includes a $25 registered agent designation fee on top of the $100 filing fee. If the agent moves offices, the address on Sunbiz is wrong from that day until a statement of change goes in.

A Florida resident with a home office can name themselves, and many do. There is no agent fee, and the filing is no harder. The trade comes later. Sunbiz is a public record, so a home address used as the registered office is on it. And because the agent's office is the registered office, moving means filing a $25 change.

If you are your own agent, the section 48.091(3) hours apply to your office, and someone has to be there to take service during them. That is a real commitment for an owner who travels or works from client sites.

Naming a trusted individual is an option too, such as an attorney with a Florida office or an accountant. Their address goes on the public record, and your company is relying on them to stay put. If they move out of state or close their office, your records are wrong until you file a change.

Owners who live outside Florida have the simplest case. A person with no Florida office cannot qualify as an individual agent, so a registered agent entity is the practical route.

The form is the Statement of Change of Registered Office or Registered Agent or Both, Form INHS18, and the state fee is $25. It is a PDF form signed by a member or authorized representative and by the new agent, who accepts the appointment on it, and it is mailed to the Division of Corporations in Tallahassee. The statement is effective when the Department files it. There is a second route that people forget: the change can also be made on your annual report, though a standalone statement is the way to get the new agent in place on a date you choose.

Mainstay prepares and files the change for you when you switch, and the $25 passes through at cost. The new agent accepts the appointment on the form, so there is nothing for you to chase down. Once the Division processes it, our address replaces the old one on the public record.

Do not cancel the old agent first. The old agent stays your agent of record until the Department files the change.

A Florida agent resigns on Form INHS17, the Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent. The agent pays the fee, $85 for an LLC that is active ($25 if it is dissolved or withdrawn). After filing, the agent has to promptly mail a copy to the LLC's current mailing address. The resignation takes effect on the earlier of the 31st day after the Department files it or the day a statement of change or other record naming a new agent is filed. So you have about a month, and the replacement goes in on the $25 INHS18.

If no agent is in place, service of process runs down a list under section 48.062: first the registered agent, then, if the agent cannot be served after good-faith attempts, any manager (or any member in a member-managed LLC) or any person listed publicly on the latest annual report. If that fails after due diligence, service goes through the Secretary of State.

Going without an agent also has costs. Failing to appoint and maintain a registered agent is a ground for administrative dissolution under section 605.0714. The Department serves a notice of intent and dissolves the LLC if the ground is not corrected within 60 days. An LLC that is out of compliance cannot prosecute or maintain a court action until it complies and pays a penalty of $5 for each day it failed to comply or $500, whichever is less.

Mainstay's registered agent service is $149 a year and renews at $149. It covers the agent role and compliance reminders, so you hear about deadlines. Filing your annual report, due between January 1 and May 1, is not part of this service. The $199 formation package files it, covers the agent, and also includes the formation filing and your EIN application, so a new company is better off starting there.

On Sunbiz, your registered office changes to Mainstay's Florida address. A summons or other service of process is scanned and uploaded within the same business day, and that costs nothing. Government mailings are scanned free up to three a year, with a per-piece scan or shipping fee after that, and none of our tiers include free physical forwarding.

Legal advice is not something we provide, so the response to a lawsuit stays with your attorney.