Lost touch with your web developer? Get your site back

You've lost touch with your developer. What should you check first?

Check whose name your domain is registered in and when it expires. The expiration date keeps getting closer while you wait to hear back.

People tend to stick with things as they are. Psychologists call it status quo bias; in the classic study, people "tended to remain with the status quo when such a position was offered to them."¹ That's why "let's give it a little longer" feels so natural. But a domain doesn't wait. For domains like .com, ICANN's rules say the registrar sends renewal reminders to the registered name holder at least twice, about a month and about a week before expiration. After it expires, the domain stops working before it's deleted, and after deletion there's a 30-day window to restore it.² If those reminders are going to your developer's inbox, nobody may renew it.

1. On your own: check the domain's owner and expiration date, keep a log of your attempts to reach them, save your public pages, find your contracts
2. Needs the account holder's help: moving a domain or hosting account that's in someone else's name into yours
3. Needs a professional: when they never answer, or it turns into a dispute

Start with what you can do yourself, and waiting time turns into preparation time.

Protect the address first.

Jeensuk's takeWaiting to hear back and checking the expiration date can happen at the same time. So waiting doesn't turn into neglect, put the expiration date on your calendar first.

What should you save while you wait?

Gather three things: a record of your attempts to reach them, a copy of what your website shows today, and your contracts and receipts. You can do all three yourself, and you'll need them whichever way things go.

1. A contact log: list when and how you reached out (phone, email, text) and whether they replied, in date order. Take screenshots of emails and messages.
2. Your website as it looks now: if it still loads, save the text and photos from every page. If you can't get the hosting back and have to rebuild, this becomes your blueprint.
3. Contracts and receipts: find the build contract, any maintenance agreement, and the card statements or bank records that show who paid for the domain and hosting.

Reach out one more time, politely. For example: "Sorry to bother you while you're busy. We'd like to start managing our website's domain and hosting ourselves. Could you help us move the domain and hosting account into our company's name? We'd appreciate hearing back by [date]." No blame, just a clear date.

Jeensuk's takeWhen the developer came through a friend, it's hard to know what to say. But a polite request with a date on it doesn't hurt the relationship.

How do you bring your domain into your own name?

If the domain is already in your company's name, you can renew it or move it to another registrar yourself. If it's in your developer's name, you'll need their cooperation, so don't miss your chance when they do get back to you.

If it's in your name: to move a domain to another registrar you need a transfer code (often called an auth code or AuthInfo code). ICANN's guidance says "your registrar must provide you with the AuthInfo code within five (5) calendar days of your request," and if a registrar won't cooperate, you can file a transfer complaint with ICANN. One catch: after the registrant name changes, the domain generally can't move to a different registrar for 60 days.⁴

If it's in your developer's name: changing the registrant goes through the registrar, so you need the current registrant to make or approve the change. Registrars may let the registrant opt out of the 60-day lock, but they don't have to, and ICANN advises: "please review a registrar's policy before making a change to registrant information."⁵ Explain your situation to the registrar's support team and ask what they need.

Your registrar must provide you with the AuthInfo code within five (5) calendar days of your request. — ICANN, "FAQs for Registrants: Transferring Your Domain Name"

Jeensuk's takeIf the address is in someone else's name, you can't move even your own shop sign. So the day they answer, the first thing to ask for is the domain.

How do you get your hosting and WordPress admin back?

For hosting, the question is whose name is on the account. For WordPress, it's whose email is on the admin account. If your company pays the hosting bill, start by asking the host who the account holder is.

If the hosting charges come out of your company's card or bank account, take those records to the hosting company and ask who holds the account. In our experience, if it's your company, the host will walk you through getting back into the dashboard. If it's your developer, you'll need their cooperation, just like with the domain.

For WordPress, "the easiest way to reset" a password is the "Lost your password?" link on the login page, which emails the address on the account. If that email belongs to your developer, every other method on WordPress.org's list needs access to the server or database, such as phpMyAdmin, FTP or WP-CLI.⁶ That's why the hosting always comes first.

Jeensuk's takeYou can only recut the room keys (WordPress) once you have the house key (hosting). Doing it in the other order just wastes time.

What if they never answer?

Take your contract and the records you gathered in step 2 to an attorney, especially if you're worried about who owns the design or code, or if it turns into a dispute over the domain. This article isn't legal advice.

Who owns the design and code isn't automatic. The U.S. Copyright Office explains that a commissioned work counts as a "work made for hire," owned by the business that ordered it, only if it falls into one of nine specific categories and there's a written agreement, signed by both sides, that expressly calls it a work made for hire. "If a work fails to satisfy any of these requirements, it is not a work made for hire."⁷ So what your contract says matters, and the Copyright Office itself says it "cannot provide legal advice" on a particular work.

For domains, ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a fast-track complaint process for trademark holders against abusive registrations, filed with an approved provider; most other trademark-based disputes are settled by agreement, court action or arbitration.⁸ Whether any of that fits your situation is a question for your attorney.

There's another path, too. If the domain is in your name, you can build a new site from what you saved in step 2 and point the same address at it, even if you never get the old hosting back. Since you're leaving the old server behind anyway, it can also be a chance to step off the treadmill of upgrading PHP every few years.

Jeensuk's takeIf the road back is blocked, you can build a new one. As long as you've kept the address, starting fresh is less scary than it sounds.

What can you do so this never happens again?

Once you have things back, write down on one page whose name your domain, hosting, WordPress, email and DNS are in. And in any new contract, spell out whose name things go in and what you get when the work ends.

If every box is in your company's name and managed by someone you can reach, that's enough. Our guide to the five website keys, with a one-page form, is coming soon in English.

Jeensuk's takeThe better the vendor, the more worth it is to write down "when it ends." Deciding how things end isn't distrust; it protects both sides.