It's common: a web designer registers the domain for you to save you the hassle, and puts it in their own account. That works fine until they stop answering, close up shop, or you want to move on. Then you find out your business's web address, and your email if it runs on that domain, isn't really in your hands.
The good news is that this is usually fixable. (This is practical advice, not legal advice. If there's a real dispute, a lawyer can help.)
Step 1: Find out where it's registered
Every domain is registered through a registrar, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare or Squarespace. The registrar treats whoever is listed as the registrant, and whoever controls the account it sits in, as the person in charge of the domain.
Look your domain up at lookup.icann.org. Note three things:
- The registrar. This is who you'll deal with.
- The expiry date. If it's within a couple of months, make this your first job.
- The registrant. Often hidden for privacy. If it shows your name or business, you're in a strong position. If it shows the designer's, you'll need their help or the registrar's.
Country domains have their own rules. A .com.au domain, for example, has to be held by someone eligible in Australia under auDA's rules, often the business itself. Your registrar can tell you how ownership changes work for your domain ending.
“Your web address belongs in your name, in your account, with your email on it. Not your web designer's.”
Step 2: Check you don't already have access
Search your inbox for the registrar's name and for "renewal". Sometimes the domain was set up with your email address, and a password reset on the registrar's site is all it takes. If you get in, change the password, turn on two-step sign-in, and switch on auto-renew.
Step 3: Ask your designer, in writing
There are two ways they can give it back. Either is fine.
- Move it to your account at the same registrar. Most registrars let one customer push a domain to another customer's account. You create a free account at that registrar, send the designer your account details, and they move it across. No cost, no downtime.
- Send the transfer code. The designer unlocks the domain and gives you the transfer code (also called an auth code or EPP code), and you move it to a registrar of your choice. For most domains, such as .com, a transfer costs about a year's renewal and adds a year to the registration.
Either way, ask them to update the registrant to your name or business too, not just the account. Some registrars briefly block moving a domain to another registrar after the owner details change, so do the owner change first and any move to another registrar after.
Note the line about DNS. If your website or email runs on the domain, the settings that point it there (the DNS records) need to stay as they are during the move. Take a screenshot of them first if you can see them.
Step 4: If they won't answer or won't hand it over
- Follow up once, in writing, with a new date.
- Contact the registrar's support. Explain that you're the business the domain is for and the person who registered it is unreachable. Ask how their process for ownership disputes works.
- Gather proof: invoices showing you paid for the domain or the website, your business registration, emails where the designer refers to it as your domain, and anything that shows you've used it as your business's address.
- If someone is holding a domain that matches your trademark in bad faith, there are formal dispute processes: the UDRP for most domains like .com, and the auDRP for .au domains. These need evidence and usually a lawyer, so treat them as a last resort.
If the domain is about to expire
Act now. After a domain expires, most registrars hold it for a short grace period, then a redemption period where getting it back costs more. After that it can be released and registered by anyone. If it's close and the designer is unreachable, contact the registrar today and explain. Some will let the business renew it with proof.
How to make sure it never happens again
- Register domains in your own name, in an account with your own email address.
- Give designers and developers their own login or team access, rather than your password or ownership.
- Turn on auto-renew and two-step sign-in, and keep the login in a password manager.
- Make it part of every web project contract: the domain, hosting and logins belong to you.
Free checklist
Domain handover checklist
That last one is our standard promise. In a website rescue we get your domain and logins back into your name, fix or finish the site at a fixed price, and hand over everything. If you're still in the first days of this, start with what to do in the first 48 hours.
