OH registered agent
Ohio registered agent service, $3.50 a year
Ohio requires every corporation and LLC on its books to keep a registered agent at a real address in the state. Here is what Ohio law says about who that agent has to be and where it has to be.
What Ohio requires of a registered agent
The requirement
Ohio calls it the 'statutory agent' (for licensed foreign corporations, the 'designated agent'). The agent must be a natural person resident in Ohio, or almost any entity type (corporation, nonprofit, LLC, partnership, LP, LLP, professional association, business trust, etc.) with a business address in Ohio; a non-Ohio-corporation entity agent must be qualified under Title XVII to transact business in Ohio. The agent's address must be a primary residence or a 'usual place of business' - a PO box does not qualify. LLC rule is materially identical (R.C. 1706.09(A)); banks, trust companies, insurance companies, and public utilities are excluded from 1701.07.
Every corporation shall have and maintain an agent, sometimes referred to as the "statutory agent," upon whom any process, notice, or demand required or permitted by statute to be served upon a corporation may be served. The agent shall be one of the following: (1) A natural person who is a resident of this state; (2) A domestic or foreign corporation, nonprofit corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited partnership association, professional association, business trust, or unincorporated nonprofit association that has a business address in this state.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1701.07(A), (C)(2); § 1706.09(A); § 1703.041(A)
How we comply
We don't.
What Ohio does to your company when we don't
Here is what the state does to an entity that has no agent, or whose agent is us.
Administrative dissolution
Cancellation of articles: if a corporation fails to appoint a replacement agent or file an agent address change, the SoS mails notice; unless cured within 30 days (or any extension), the articles are CANCELED without further notice or action. Identical mechanism cancels an LLC's articles or a foreign LLC's registration (R.C. 1706.09(L)).
Upon the failure of a corporation to appoint another agent or to file a statement of change of address of an agent, the secretary of state shall give notice thereof... Unless the default is cured within thirty days after the mailing by the secretary of state of the notice or within any further period of time that the secretary of state grants, upon the expiration of that period of time from the date of the mailing, the articles of the corporation shall be canceled without further notice or action by the secretary of state.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1701.07(M); § 1706.09(L)
Revocation (foreign entities)
A licensed foreign corporation that fails to designate a replacement agent after its designated agent dies, resigns, or leaves Ohio gets certified-mail notice; unless cured within 30 days, the SoS cancels its license to transact business. The former name is reserved for only one year.
...or has failed, after the death or resignation of its designated agent or the designated agent's removal from this state, to designate another agent as required by section 1703.041 of the Revised Code, the secretary of state shall give notice thereof by certified mail to the corporation. Unless that failure is cured within thirty days... the secretary of state, upon the expiration of such period, shall cancel the license of the foreign corporation to transact business in this state...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1703.15
No access to the courts
A foreign corporation whose license expired or was canceled (including for failure to designate an agent) cannot maintain any action in an Ohio court until reinstated; to sue on a cause of action arising while unlicensed it must first pay a $250 forfeiture and file reinstatement papers (with a 15% forfeiture on the reinstatement fee).
...no foreign corporation that should have obtained such license shall maintain any action in any court until it has obtained such license. Before any such corporation shall maintain such action on any cause of action arising at the time when it was not licensed to transact business in this state, it shall pay to the secretary of state a forfeiture of two hundred fifty dollars...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1703.29(A), (C)
Civil penalty
A foreign corporation that transacts business in Ohio while its license is expired or canceled and not reinstated forfeits not less than $250 nor more than $10,000, plus back filing fees and franchise taxes with 6% interest, recoverable by the attorney general or prosecuting attorney.
Any foreign corporation required to be licensed under sections 1703.01 to 1703.31, inclusive, of the Revised Code, which transacts business in this state without being so licensed, or when its license has expired or been canceled and has not been reinstated, shall forfeit not less than two hundred fifty dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1703.28
The bill to come back
Reinstatement fee
A corporation or LLC whose articles (or foreign LLC registration, or foreign corporation license) were canceled may be reinstated only within TWO YEARS of cancellation, by filing an application, the required agent appointment, and the filing fee specified in R.C. 111.16(Q) (amount codified outside this corpus). Reinstated rights are subject to R.C. 1701.922 / 1706.46.
A corporation whose articles have been canceled may be reinstated by filing, within two years of the cancellation, on a form prescribed by the secretary of state, an application for reinstatement and the required appointment of agent or required statement, and by paying the filing fee specified in division (Q) of section 111.16 of the Revised Code.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1701.07(M); § 1706.09(L); § 1703.15
What happens to the lawsuit you never saw
Substituted service
If the agent cannot be found, no longer has the recorded address, or the corporation has failed to maintain an agent, the serving party files an affidavit with the SoS and serves the SoS as the corporation's agent by delivering quadruplicate copies and a $5 fee; the SoS forwards a copy by certified mail and service is deemed made. Same mechanism for LLCs (R.C. 1706.09(H)(2), four copies, $5) and for licensed foreign corporations (R.C. 1703.19, $5).
If (1) the agent cannot be found, or (2) the agent no longer has that address, or (3) the corporation has failed to maintain an agent as required by this section, and if... the party... shall have filed with the secretary of state an affidavit stating that one of the foregoing conditions exists... then service of process, notice, or demand upon the secretary of state, as the agent of the corporation, may be initiated by delivering to the secretary of state or at the secretary of state's office quadruplicate copies of such process, notice, or demand and by paying to the secretary of state a fee of five dollars.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: Ohio Rev. Code § 1701.07(H); § 1706.09(H)(2); § 1703.19
Statutory text as captured by incFACTS (retrieved 2026-08-01, verified word-for-word against the state code 2026-08-10). Laws change. The statute governs; this page does not.