Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In Vermont, this role is called an agent for service of process, governed by 11 V.S.A. Section 4007 (LLC duty to designate an agent for service of process), Section 4008 (change of agent), Section 4009 (agent resignation), 11 V.S.A. Section 1655 (cross-entity designation/change/resignation rules), Section 1656 (Secretary of State as default agent). Vermont’s LLC Act doesn’t use the term ‘registered agent’ at all; it calls the role an ‘agent for service of process’; and the whole mechanism was just recodified into a single cross-entity chapter (11 V.S.A. Sections 1655-1656) effective July 1, 2025. The LLC itself is explicitly barred from serving as its own agent.
What the address rule requires
Per the Vermont Secretary of State, ‘the only qualification to be a registered agent is that the agent has a street and mailing address located in Vermont’; the LLC’s own ‘designated office’ under Section 4007 can technically be located anywhere, but the agent’s own address must be a real Vermont street address.
Who can serve as your registered agent
Per 11 V.S.A. Section 1655(a), an individual resident of Vermont or a business organization with a place of business in, and authorized to conduct business in, Vermont; per the Secretary of State, the agent may be an individual person or a registered/active business or nonprofit entity, ‘other than the represented business itself.’
What happens if you don’t have one
Per 11 V.S.A. Section 1656, if the LLC fails to appoint or maintain an agent, or the agent can’t be found with reasonable diligence, the Vermont Secretary of State becomes the LLC’s default agent; the Secretary forwards process by registered/certified mail to the LLC’s principal office or last known address, with service effective as early as 5 days after mailing. There’s no LLC-specific ‘no agent = automatic dissolution’ statute the way some other states have; per Secretary of State guidance, an agent’s resignation terminates 30 days after filing, and if no replacement is appointed, ‘the business will lose its good standing, resulting in a Terminated status.’ Separately, 11 V.S.A. Section 4034 terminates an LLC’s articles of organization outright for failing to file its annual report, independent of any registered-agent lapse.
How to change your registered agent
$35.00 for a Statement of Change (11 V.S.A. Section 4008, fee set under Section 4012); a Statement of Resignation filed by the agent is free ($0.00); there is no additional surcharge for filing online versus by mail. (source: Vermont Secretary of State, Business Services Division, official fee schedule (sos.vermont.gov/business-services/fees-statutes))
This page covers what Vermont’s own law requires. For the general question of whether you should pay a commercial service or serve as your own agent, see registered agent: do you actually need to pay for one.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own statute, Secretary of State site, or official filing form this session (or, where that site could not be reached, from an independently cross-checked legal-database mirror of the same codified text, disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; fees and specific procedures can change, and your state’s Secretary of State has the final say for any individual filing.
Related: Vermont’s LLC Certificate of Good Standing cost, including who issues it and how fast you can get one.