Many companies organized as corporations or limited liability companies routinely use a registered agent in states where the company does business. This is especially true when a company is set up under the laws of other states, such as Delaware. And a company’s use of a registered agent and the agent’s address is certainly acceptable in many business contexts. However, the FAA recently issued a Legal Interpretation rejecting this practice when an applicant submits an FAA Form 8050-1 Application for Aircaft Registration.
The FAA gave two reasons why this practice is unacceptable: (1) the registered agent’s address is not the mailing of the applicant; and (2) the registered agent’s address is not the physical address of the applicant. The FAA stated “if the applicant’s physical address is not listed on the Form 8050-1, it is our opinion that the Application for Registration is not completed in accordance with 14 C.F.R. §47.31(b)(1).” Additionally, §47.45 requires that an applicant/aircraft owner provide a physical address/location if different from a new mailing address.
Although a registered agent is permitted to sign an application for aircraft registration on behalf of the applicant/aircraft owner, the applicant must comply with §47.13 (the agent must sign as agent/attorney-in-fact and include a power of attorney signed by the applicant/aircraft owner). And even then the aircraft owner’s address must be used on the application (because the application asks for the owner’s address, not the address of the owner’s agent).
If the FAA determines that a registered agent’s address has been used, the FAA will reject the application. This will result in delays in getting the aircraft’s registration transferred to the applicant/aircraft owner and in obtaining the hard-card registration certificate.
