A domain held by a contractor or developer: how to regain control

A typical situation with a studio

The same scenario repeats year after year. A business orders a fully managed website, and the contractor registers the domain to themselves or to one of their employees to make administration more convenient. As long as the collaboration goes smoothly, no one gives it a second thought. The problem surfaces later: the company decides to switch studios, the developer moves on to freelancing or disappears altogether, and the domain stays with them.

• the domain is registered to the contractor's sole proprietorship or as an individual rather than to the client;
• only the studio has access to the registrar account;
• the administrator's email is tied to the developer's address;
• when the relationship ends, the studio is in no hurry to hand over the rights.

A similar case is examined in the article on what to do when a domain is left registered to a former employee – the approach to recovery largely overlaps.

Contractual grounds

The right to a domain is confirmed not by the mere fact of using the website, but by documents. The more of them you have, the smoother the recovery goes. It is worth gathering everything that links the domain to your business.

• the website development contract that mentions the domain and hosting;
• statements of work, invoices, and payment records for domain renewals;
• correspondence in which the contractor acknowledges registering the domain on your behalf;
• a company name or trademark that matches the domain.

If the domain matches a registered trademark, the client's position is noticeably stronger: the trademark holder has a priority right. When the domain is registered under an unrelated name and has no connection to your business, be prepared for longer negotiations.

The recovery process

Recovery moves from the simple to the complex. Most cases are resolved within the first two steps, without disputes or courts.

1. use WHOIS to establish who the domain is actually registered to;
2. approach the contractor and ask them to arrange an amicable transfer of rights;
3. carry out a change of the domain administrator through the registrar;
4. if they refuse, escalate with a pre-trial claim and legal arguments.

The cleanest outcome is an amicable transfer with the domain re-registered in your name. Before accepting the domain, it is worth confirming that the data is up to date and that there are no outstanding debts against it – a domain owner check helps with this. If the contractor is cooperative, the whole process usually takes just a few days.

How to prevent it in the future

The best protection is to secure the domain in your own name from the start, so there is nothing to recover later. This applies both to a new website and to working with any contractor in the future.

• register the domain to the company, not to the contractor;
• keep access to the registrar account in your own hands;
• state in the contract that the domain belongs to the client;
• periodically check the administrator details in WHOIS.

These simple rules save months of negotiations. A domain is your business's address online, and control over it should remain with you – not with those who merely helped build the website.