What Happens to the Domain When the Business Changes Hands

Why it gets missed

Business sale paperwork lists vehicles, equipment, stock, contracts, customer lists and intellectual property.

The domain is intangible, costs a small annual amount, and does not feel like an asset. So it is not listed, and neither is the registrar account, the hosting, the business email, or the accounts that authenticate against that domain.

Then completion happens, and the buyer discovers that the thing every customer uses to reach the business is in somebody else's personal account.

Usually that is resolved with a phone call. Occasionally it is not, and the leverage sits entirely with the seller.

What should be named

Specifically, in the agreement, rather than under a general heading.

• The domain or domains, each spelled out.
• The registrar account, and whether it transfers or the domains move out of it.
• Hosting, and whether the account transfers.
• Email addresses and mailboxes, and what happens to their contents.
• The website content, which is a separate asset from the domain.
• Social and listing profiles, including the business listing.
• Any accounts registered using an address on that domain.

The last is the one that causes trouble after completion, because it is invisible until something needs a password reset.

The email problem

Worth separating because it cuts both ways.

Mailboxes on the domain contain the seller's correspondence, which may include personal matters, and the buyer receiving all of it is rarely intended by either party.

What usually works: the seller exports and removes what they need before completion, and an arrangement is agreed for anything sent to old addresses afterwards, whether forwarded for a period or auto-replied.

Customers write to the address they have for years, so simply deleting the mailboxes loses business the buyer paid for.

A forwarding period of several months, agreed in writing, handles it.

Doing the transfer properly

The sequence, which should be a completion step rather than an afterthought.

1. Confirm who actually holds the registration, which is sometimes a former developer.
2. Update the registrant details to the new owner, or transfer the domain to their account.
3. Move hosting or transfer the account.
4. Change every credential, not just the ones you were given.
5. Remove access for the seller and anybody they used.
6. Update the business listing and profiles to the new ownership.

The first step surprises buyers regularly. A domain registered years ago by a web designer, still in that designer's account, is a common situation and it means the seller cannot transfer what they do not control.

Establishing that before completion rather than after is the whole point of raising it early.

Buying: what to check

During due diligence rather than afterwards.

Who the registrant is, and whether it matches the seller. When the domain expires, since one expiring shortly after completion is a risk you are inheriting. Whether it is locked and transferable.

Whether the domain has a history before this business, and whether anything about that history would follow it.

And what the site actually earns, meaning the enquiries and search visibility, since a substantial part of what you are buying may be the domain's accumulated position rather than the premises or the equipment.

Selling: what protects you

The seller has exposure too.

Do not transfer the domain before payment clears, since it is difficult to recover and the buyer's site is then live on it.

Remove your personal accounts from addresses on that domain before handing it over, as with any domain sale.

And be clear about what you are warranting. A seller who states the domain is unencumbered when a developer actually holds it has a problem.

The version that applies to succession

Not every handover is a sale.

A business passing to family, a partner buying out another, or an owner becoming unavailable raise the same questions with less paperwork.

Which is the argument for the domain sitting in a business account, under a business email, with more than one person able to reach it, before any of this arises.

That arrangement costs nothing to set up and removes the entire problem, and it is the same account structure that matters for ordinary management, as covered in managing more than one domain.

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.