What to do if your web designer has disappeared

You haven’t lost your business, and you may not have lost your website. Start with your domain name: your website and your email both depend on it, and it’s the part that’s hardest to replace.

Your domain name is your web address, for example yourbusiness.co.uk.

1. Find the company your domain is registered through

Your domain name is your web address, for example yourbusiness.co.uk. Your website and your email both depend on it, so it’s the first thing to sort out.

Look it up on Nominet’s look-up if it ends in .uk, or ICANN’s look-up for .com and most others. It shows the company that registered it, called the registrar.

It usually won’t show who owns it. For .uk addresses, the owner’s name and address are hidden by default. So don’t be surprised if your designer’s name or yours isn’t shown.

2. Contact the registrar

The registrar is the only one who can change who a domain belongs to, or give you the code to move it to another company (ICANN).

Tell them it’s your business’s domain and ask for it to be moved into an account in your name. Expect to be asked to prove who you are.

Here’s the difficult part. If the domain sits in your designer’s account, most registrars will want that account holder to agree to a change of owner. If your designer has vanished, that can take longer, and the registrar decides whether to help. Be patient, keep everything in writing, and keep a copy of any invoices or emails that show you paid for the domain.

3. If it’s a .uk address and the registrar won’t help

Nominet, which runs .uk, can step in when a registrar doesn’t follow its rules. It can’t hand a domain over to you itself, but it’s the next place to go.

4. Don’t let it lapse

If your designer was paying the renewals, the domain could run out. Ask the registrar when it expires. A .uk domain that has lapsed can sometimes still be restored for a short time, so act quickly if you think it’s close.

5. Look for your logins

Search your email for your designer’s name and words like “login”, “password”, “welcome”, “hosting” and “invoice”. Setup emails and invoices often say who hosts the website and what the details were.

Check your other accounts too. Your Google Business Profile is separate from your website: see how to give someone access.

If you can’t get the old website back

Your domain is the valuable part, because it’s how customers and Google already know you. If you can get that into your name, a new website can run on it, and you keep your address and your email. Whether to fix the old site or start again depends on what state it’s in: see do I need a new website, or just fixes?

How we can help

We can help you get your domain back. We find who it’s registered with, contact them for you and work through what they need from you. We can’t promise a result, because the registrar makes the final decision, but you won’t be doing it alone.

If you’re having a new website with us, we’ll do this as part of the job. If not, we’ll tell you what’s involved, and the cost, before we start.

Whatever happens, domains we register for you stay yours, always. If you ever want to leave, we give you what you need to move yours. Our guide to who owns your website explains what to ask any designer before you sign.

Lost touch with your web designer? Locked out? Tell us what’s happened and we’ll help you take back control of your domain name and website.