Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

My friend and I are filmmakers. We are starting work on a new, small budget project and we are forming an LLC for the first time. My partner lives in Boston and I live in Syracuse, NY. We want to set up the LLC in New York State, as that is where the film is going to be shot and premiered. My friend is setting up the LLC and wanted to know if he could use my house address as the adress for the LLC. My question is this: would putting my house address as the address for the LLC make my home possibly at risk in case of a lawsuit, even though I am not named as an owner of the LLC?


Asked on 6/18/12, 9:39 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Matthew Parham Western New York Law Center, Inc.

Unless the LLC owns the house, the house should not be at risk in a lawsuit against the LLC, particularly if you own the house and are not even an owner of the LLC. An LLC generally gives its members/owners limited liability, i.e., the owners cannot be liable for claims against the LLC, generally. There are certain situations that may be exceptions, where the LLC form will be disregarded, such as if the owners are hiding behind the LLC to commit frauds or avoid paying loans, or where the members are themselves disregarding the LLC form (i.e. systematically using its assets and bank accounts for personal expenses or non-LLC business, not holding member meetings required by the operating agreement, etc.), or something to that effect, but this is rare. Not even being an owner, you should be liable, and your own property should be at risk, only for your own personal wrongs, such as if you were to personally injure someone, or signed a personal guaranty of the LLC's contract and breached the guaranty. Just listing your address as contact address for the LLC in state paperwork (I assume you are referring to the address where the Secretary of State will mail process) should not affect your liability. In fact, it is common to list the address of an attorney who drafted the LLC papers, who is not a member of the LLC. The only caveat I could think of is that you might conceivably be liable to the LLC if you failed to notify it of papers mailed to the LLC at your address.

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Answered on 6/21/12, 1:02 pm


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