A New Rule for Changing a Domain's Owner

What the new rule requires

From today, registrars of .com, .net, .org and the other generic domain endings must treat a change to the domain's owner details as a formal change of registrant.

The change has to be confirmed, by the current owner and the new one or by someone each has authorised. Both are told when it happens.

Afterwards the domain cannot be moved to another registrar for 60 days, unless the owner opted out of that lock before asking for the change.

The website and email keep working throughout. What stops is the ability to move the domain. Domains ending in .ca are not covered; they follow their own rules.

What counts as a change

• A different registrant name, other than correcting a typing mistake.
• A different organisation name, after a sale or a rebrand.
• Any change to the registrant's email address, however small.
• A name change made together with a new address or phone number.
• Not a new street address or phone number on its own.

The third catches the most businesses. Updating the contact email when the person who registered the domain leaves, which is exactly the right thing to do, now counts as changing the owner.

How the confirmation works

Registrars handle it in one of two ways. Some email the old and new addresses, each with a link to approve. Others approve the change themselves, on your behalf, under terms you accepted when you opened the account.

Either way, both addresses receive a notice saying what changed and whether a transfer lock now applies.

Where a request needs approving, it lapses if nobody confirms it within the period the registrar sets. A request sent to an inbox that was closed last month simply never completes.

Fake registrar emails are common, so treat any unexpected request with care. Log in to the registrar's site directly to check it rather than clicking the link.

The 60-day lock

The lock exists to stop a familiar kind of theft, in which someone gets into an account, changes the owner and moves the domain to another registrar before anyone notices.

For legitimate owners it means that, after a change, the domain stays where it is for 60 days. Renewals, settings and records can still be changed normally.

A registrar may offer an opt-out, but only before the change is requested. After that the lock stands, and transfer requests are refused until it ends.

Move first, then change the owner

If a domain is going to change both registrar and owner, the order matters. Move it first, while the current details still stand, and change the owner at the new registrar afterwards.

The rule itself expects this. Before a change, registrars must tell the current owner to request any transfer first.

Done the other way round, the move waits two months.

Selling a business with its domains

When a business is sold, its domains are part of what is sold, and the paperwork should list them: the main domain, any typo domains, a second-language name, the .ca as well as the .com.

Agree who will change what, and when. The buyer's email must be working before it goes on the record, and the seller's must keep working until every confirmation has gone through.

If the buyers want the domains with their own registrar, move them before closing, or plan for the wait.

The buyer should end up with the registrar account itself, not just the names, so the renewals and passwords are theirs as well.

A rebrand or a new contact address

A rebrand that changes the name on the registration triggers the same process, and so does moving the contact email to a new domain.

Make those changes while the old email address still works, and not in the same week as a planned move to another registrar.

A shared address, such as one used only for accounts and domains, avoids most future changes, since it survives any one person leaving.

A worked example

A guest ranch in the Interior, with a dozen cabins and a string of trail horses, was sold this autumn, with its website, booking system and domains included in the sale.

The .com was registered in the previous owner's personal name, with her personal email, at a registrar the buyers did not use.

The plan was to change the owner details first, then move the domain to the registrar their web company manages.

Under today's rule, that order would have locked the domain until late January, after the previous owner's email had closed, and in the weeks when summer bookings start to arrive.

So the web company reversed it. The transfer was started last week, while the previous owner could still approve it, and the owner details will be changed at the new registrar once it arrives.

The ranch's .ca domain is moving to the new owners through the separate .ca process, which their company qualifies for as a BC business.

Why .ca is different

The .ca registry sets its own rules, and the policy that starts today does not apply to it.

Changing the holder of a .ca domain is a transfer from one registrant to another under the registry's own process. The new holder must meet the Canadian presence requirements, as every .ca holder must, and accept the registry's terms.

Ask your registrar how it handles .ca changes, since the steps and any confirmations differ from those for a .com.

The counter-case

Most businesses will never notice this rule. A domain already registered to the business, with a shared contact email and no plans to move, needs nothing today.

For most owners, the extra emails are the only visible change, and they are worth reading rather than deleting.

Where a sale, a rebrand or a registrar move is coming, though, plan the order of changes around the 60-day lock.

Before you change anything

1. List every domain the business holds.
2. Check the registrant name and email on each.
3. Fix contact emails while the old ones work.
4. Decide whether any domain will change registrar.
5. Move registrars first, then change the owner.
6. Ask about the opt-out before any change.
7. Answer confirmation emails promptly.

Step five is the one that saves two months. The rule only locks a domain after an owner change, so a move made first is never caught by it.

Why the registrant and its contact details matter so much is covered in email addresses on a domain you could lose.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.