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I received a notice in the mail this last December from the CA Secretary of State telling me of possible delinquency for an LLC I have never heard of. It indicated that I had not submitted my LLC-12R form.

The letter indicated that the LLC was registered to my specific apartment address. At the time I thought nothing of it, writing it off as a mistake.

Today I received the same notice indicating that I was in possible suspension/forfeiture, same LLC, same reason. This time I google searched this LLC. The only thing I could find was a page on Lendindex and sure enough it listed my apartment address.

I have never started or owned my own business. I have never lived or worked in CA. Does anyone have any idea or advice on why this might be happening or what I should do?

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  • Are the letters addressed to you personally? Or you're getting the letters to the LLC that just happen to be sent to your address? When was the LLC setup? Did you ask the landlord if maybe the previous tenants need to hear about this?
    – littleadv
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 2:26
  • The letters are addressed to my apartment address but not to my name. The LLC was set up three years before I moved into my current address. I'll see what the landlord says.
    – Nukesub
    Commented Aug 17, 2016 at 22:05

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Did it show just your address, or was your name on it as well?

You didn't share how long you've lived at the address either, so it makes me wonder whether a former tenant is the one who filed that paperwork. It's also possible that someone used your address when making a filing. Whether that was deliberate or accidental is hard to discern, as is their intent if it was intentional.

It could be accidental -- someone picked "CA" for California when they meant to pick "CO" for Colorado or "CT" for Connecticut...These things do happen. It can't make you feel any better about the situation though.

You should be able to go online to the California Secretary of State's website (here) and look up everything filed by the LLC with the state. That will show who the founders were and everything else that is a matter of public record on the LLC. At the very least, you can obtain the registered agent's name and address for the LLC, which you can then use to contact them and ask why your address is listed as the LLC's business address.

Once you have that info, you can then contact the Secretary of State and tell them it isn't you so they can do whatever is necessary to correct this.

This doesn't sound like a difficult matter to clear up, but it's important to do your homework first and gather as much information as you can before you call the state. Answering "I don't know" won't get you very far with them compared to having the best answers you can about where the mistake started.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

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  • Would the founders be the "Agent for Service of Process"? I don't see a "Founders" and the "Agent for Service of Process" has its own separate address listed that is not mine.
    – Nukesub
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 0:39
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    The registered agent is important information, because if nothing else, you can contact them to ask why your address is associated with a filing they're listed on. It's a starting point to track down further details. It's unfortunate if California doesn't let you review things like articles of incorporation online like other states do. They do have the option of letting you request it by mail. In this case though, the registered agent is a very good place to start.
    – Daniel Anderson
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 0:44

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