Guide · Ownership
Getting your
domain back.
It is one of the most common problems we are asked to untangle: the person who built the site years ago also registered the domain, in their own name or their own account, and has since stopped answering. The website and often the email depend on that domain. Here is how to get it back, in order.
Published 2026-09-21 · Formory Group
Step one: find out who the registrant is.
The registrant is the legal holder of a domain. Everything else — the "admin contact", the account it sits in, who pays the renewal — matters less. Look the domain up on a WHOIS service, or with the registrar where it is held. For a .ca domain registered to an individual, the details are private by default; for business registrations they may be visible or hidden by a privacy service.
If the registrant is your business, you are in a strong position even if the designer controls the account. If the registrant is the designer personally, you are not the legal holder, and the path is negotiation first.
If it is a .ca domain.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority's registrant agreement is unusually clear on this point: the administrative contact acts as the registrant's agent, and in any dispute between the two, the registrant prevails. So if your business is the registrant and the designer is only the admin contact, you can have the contact changed through the registrar.
To move a .ca to a registrar you control: unlock it, then request the authorisation code. The request goes to the admin contact's email, and the registrar must provide the code within five days. If the code never comes because the designer is the admin contact and is ignoring you, contact the registrar as the registrant with proof of identity, and if that stalls, contact CIRA. A .ca registered or transferred in the last 60 days cannot be moved yet.
If it is a .com or another generic domain.
The rules come from ICANN's transfer policy. Registrars must hand over the authorisation code within five calendar days of a valid request. Changing the registrant's name, organisation or email can trigger a 60-day transfer lock, which many registrars let you opt out of when you make the change — ask before you change anything.
ICANN approved a revised transfer policy in 2025 that removes that 60-day change-of-registrant lock. It takes effect only after implementation, so check with your registrar which rules are in force when you do this.
If the designer is the registrant.
Start with a short, polite written request: you would like the domain transferred to your business, you will cover any renewal fees owed, and here is the registrar you want it moved to. Most designers who have drifted away will agree once someone asks plainly. Keep invoices that show you paid for the site and domain; they are your evidence.
The formal dispute processes are designed for bad-faith registrations — someone registering your trademark to extort you — and they expect you to prove it. A former supplier who registered the name in good faith to build your site is usually a contract matter rather than a dispute-policy matter. If it gets that far, it is worth a lawyer's letter before anything else.
Before you touch anything.
Write down where the domain's DNS currently points, especially the MX records that route your email. A transfer done carelessly can take the site and the mailboxes offline for a day or more. A good transfer copies the records first, moves the domain, and checks email arrives before anyone celebrates.
How to never be here again.
Register your domain in your business's name, in an account whose login you hold, with a renewal card you control. Your web person can be added as a technical contact. That is how we set up every client: the domain is theirs from day one, and if they leave us it goes with them.
Questions
Asked often.
Can the designer take my website down?
If they control the hosting, they can stop hosting it. The domain and the content are separate questions: you can get the domain back through the steps above and put a new site on it, even if the old files are lost.
The domain expired. Is it gone?
Not immediately. Most domains pass through grace and redemption periods after expiry during which the registrant can renew, sometimes for a fee. Contact the registrar the day you notice.
Who owns the website content?
That depends on your contract with the designer. Text and photographs you supplied are yours. The design and code may not be, unless the contract says so — another reason to read the ownership clause before you sign.
Your turn
Same check,
run on your site.
The check behind this page is the one we ran on every business above. Put your own address in and it will load your site on a phone screen, look at the certificate and the page age, and tell you what a visitor meets. No email, nothing stored.
Start with a
straight answer.
Describe the business and where it works. We come back with what we would change, what it would cost and how long it takes — or with a reason not to bother.