(1) Each limited partnership shall continuously maintain in this state an office which may but need not be a place of its business in this state, at which shall be kept the records required by *RCW 25.10.050 to be maintained. The office shall be at a specific geographical location in this state and be identified by number, if any, and street or building address or rural route or other geographical address. The office shall not be identified only by post office box number or other nongeographic address. For purposes of communicating by mail, the secretary of state may permit the use of a post office address in conjunction with the office address.

     (2) Each limited partnership shall continuously maintain in this state an agent for service of process on the limited partnership, which agent must be an individual resident of this state, a domestic corporation, a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or a foreign corporation authorized to do business in this state. The agent may, but need not, be located at the office identified in *RCW 25.10.040(1) [subsection (1) of this section]. The agent's address shall be at a specific geographical location in this state and be identified by number, if any, and street or building address or rural route or other geographical address. The agent's address shall not be identified only by post office box number or other nongeographic address. For purposes of communicating by mail, the secretary of state may permit the use of a post office address in conjunction with the agent's geographic address.

     (3) A registered agent shall not be appointed without having given prior written consent to the appointment. The written consent shall be filed with the secretary of state in such form as the secretary may prescribe. The written consent shall be filed with or as a part of the document first appointing a registered agent. In the event any individual or corporation has been appointed agent without consent, that person or corporation may file a notarized statement attesting to that fact, and the name shall forthwith be removed from the records of the secretary of state. The registered agent so appointed by a limited partnership shall be an agent of such limited partnership upon whom any process, notice, or demand required or permitted by law to be served upon the limited partnership may be served. If a limited partnership fails to appoint or maintain a registered agent in this state, or if its registered agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found, then the secretary of state shall be an agent of such limited partnership upon whom any such process, notice, or demand may be served. Service on the secretary of state of any such process, notice, or demand shall be made by delivering to and leaving with the secretary of state, or with any authorized clerk of the corporation department of the secretary of state's office, duplicate copies of such process, notice, or demand. In the event any such process, notice, or demand is served on the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall immediately cause one of the copies thereof to be forwarded by certified mail, addressed to the limited partnership at the office referred to in *RCW 25.10.040(1) [subsection (1) of this section]. Any service so had on the secretary of state shall be returnable in no fewer than thirty days.

     The secretary of state shall keep a record of all processes, notices, and demands served upon the secretary of state under this section, and shall record therein the time of such service and the secretary of state's action with reference thereto.

     Nothing in this section limits or affects the right to serve any process, notice, or demand required or permitted by law to be served upon a limited partnership in any other manner now or hereafter permitted by law.

     Any registered agent may resign as such agent upon filing a written notice thereof, executed in duplicate, with the secretary of state, who shall forthwith mail one copy thereof to the limited partnership. The appointment of such agent shall terminate upon the expiration of thirty days after receipt of such notice by the secretary of state.

[2009 c 202 § 4; 1987 c 55 § 3; 1981 c 51 § 4.]

NOTES:

     Reviser's note: *(1) RCW 25.10.050 and 25.10.040 were repealed by 2009 c 188 § 1305, effective July 1, 2010.

     (2) RCW 25.10.040 was amended by 2009 c 202 § 4 without cognizance of its repeal by 2009 c 188 § 1305, effective July 1, 2010. For rule of construction concerning sections amended and repealed in the same legislative session, see RCW 1.12.025.

RCW 25.10.040
Registered office and agent.

[1987 c 55 § 3; 1981 c 51 § 4.] Repealed by 2009 c 188 § 1305, effective July 1, 2010. See Supplementary Table of Disposition of Former RCW Sections, this volume.

NOTES:

     Reviser's note: RCW 25.10.040 was amended by 2009 c 202 § 4 without cognizance of its repeal by 2009 c 188 § 1305, effective July 1, 2010. For rule of construction concerning sections amended and repealed in the same legislative session, see RCW 1.12.025.