Picture this: your business has been selling online for two years. One day, the person who built your website stops answering. When you try to change something, you find that the domain, the hosting and even your email sit in accounts that aren't yours.
It happens more often than you'd think, and almost always without bad intent: the designer registered everything under their own email "to move faster" and never handed it over. This guide covers what to ask before you hire a web developer, how to check who owns your domain, and what to do if it isn't you.
What it means for a domain to be "yours"
A domain (yourbusiness.com) isn't bought forever. It's registered through a company called a registrar and renewed on a schedule. A few roles are involved:
- Registrant: who is legally listed as the owner of the domain. This is the most important one.
- Registrar account: the login used to manage the domain (renew it, change settings, transfer it).
- Admin and technical contacts: people who get notices and can make changes.
Your domain is truly in your name when you or your company is the registrant, and you also control the registrar account. If only one of those is true, you still depend on someone.
How to check who owns it: three steps
1. Run a public lookup (WHOIS or RDAP)
There are public lookup tools where you type in your domain and see the registrar, the creation and expiry dates and, sometimes, the registrant's details. Much of the personal data is hidden for privacy these days, so don't panic if you don't see your name. What you should see is the registrar's name and the expiry date.
2. Find the registration email
Search your inbox and spam folder for messages from the registrar with subjects like "welcome," "invoice" or "your domain expires soon." The address those notices go to is the one that controls the account. If they don't reach an address you own, that's a clue.
3. Ask, in writing
Ask whoever registered the domain to confirm three things:
- Which registrar it's with.
- Which email address the account was created with.
- Whose name is listed as the registrant.
If you get stalling, a request for money to "hand it over," or silence, move on to the next section.
Red flags
- The domain expires soon and nobody warned you.
- You don't receive any renewal or billing emails.
- Your provider says "I take care of everything" and won't give you access.
- You don't hold a single password: not for the domain, the hosting or the email.
- Your website lives in a service only your provider can open.
How to get your domain back or transfer it
Steps vary by registrar and by domain type, but the general route is:
- Gather proof the business is yours. Invoices, contracts, emails with your provider, your company registration documents.
- Ask for the handover politely and in writing. Most of the time a clear conversation settles it.
- Ask them to change the registrant and the account email, or ask for the authorization code (also called an EPP or auth code) so you can transfer the domain to an account of yours.
- If the registrar is the one not responding, contact their support with your proof. Established registrars have a dispute process.
- If the domain already expired, find out how long you have to recover it. There's usually a grace period before it's released, so act quickly.
- Once it's back, turn on auto-renew, add two contact emails, and enable two-step verification.
Deadlines and rules depend on the domain and the company. If the case gets complicated or there's a legal dispute, get professional advice. GU Consulting doesn't provide legal advice, but we can help with the technical side of the transfer.
How to avoid the problem from day one
The rules are short and clear:
- You or your company is the registrant. Not your designer, not your cousin.
- The registrar account uses an email you own, one that won't vanish if someone leaves.
- You hold the keys to everything: domain, hosting, email, social accounts and the repository where the code lives.
- Auto-renew is on, with a valid payment method.
- A short document says where everything is and who manages it.
Questions to ask before you hire
Before you sign, ask:
- Will the domain, hosting and accounts be in my name from day one?
- Will you hand over access and a guide when the work is done?
- Where does the code live, and can I have a copy?
- What happens if we stop working together?
- What does it cost to keep this running each year, and do I pay the provider directly?
How we do it at GU Consulting
For us, "everything in your name" isn't a slogan, it's a working rule: the domain, hosting, cloud and AI accounts, and the code are in the client's name from day one. When we finish, we hand over access, a guide and a walkthrough video. To see how a project like this comes together, take a look at Services and pricing, or start by working out whether you need a landing page or a full website.
Not sure your domain is really yours? Tell us about your project and we'll help you check. We reply within 24 hours.