Website Rescue
Is your web designer holding your website hostage?
Your designer is still around — they answer the phone, they just won’t hand over the domain, the logins or the files. It feels personal, and it’s horribly common. The good news: there is a proper UK escalation path, most of it costs almost nothing, and most cases never get near a solicitor. Here it is, step by step. Rated 4.9 on Google.
- ● Family-run since 1995
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- ● Plain-English, no scare tactics
First things first
Held hostage or just gone quiet? They’re different problems
This page is for one specific situation: your web designer or developer is still there — replying to emails, taking calls — but using their control of your domain, hosting or logins as leverage. Perhaps there’s a fee dispute. Perhaps you told them you’re moving on and the drawbridge went up. Perhaps they’ve simply always kept everything in their name and now you’ve noticed.
If your designer has actually vanished — not responding at all, gone bust, retired, email bouncing — that’s a different recovery playbook with different steps. We’ve written that one separately: your web designer has disappeared — how to get your website back.
Two things worth saying straight away. First, don’t panic-click anything: no angry emails, no DIY domain transfers you don’t understand yet. Second, in our experience the overwhelming majority of these situations resolve with a couple of firm, polite, written requests — once the other side realises you know the process. That’s what the rest of this page gives you.
Know your position
What they control — and what you can take back
“My website” is really five separate things, and your designer may control some, all or none of them. Work out which before you do anything else.
| Asset | What it is | Can you reclaim it? |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Your web address (yourbusiness.co.uk). Check who the registrant is with a WHOIS lookup — for .uk domains, Nominet’s own WHOIS tool shows this free. | Usually yes. If you’re the registrant, it’s already yours. If the designer registered it in their own name, see the Nominet and ICANN routes below. |
| Hosting account | The server the site sits on. Often in the designer’s reseller account, paid by you indirectly. | Not always — but you can move. You can’t force your way into their account, but a copy of the site can be migrated to hosting in your own name. |
| CMS / admin login | WordPress admin, site editor, control panel. | Request it in writing. If refused, it becomes part of the escalation ladder below — and a rebuild remains the fallback. |
| If your @yourbusiness.co.uk email runs on the designer’s hosting, it’s at risk too. | Yes — prioritise this. Email can be moved to your own Microsoft 365 or similar account independently of the website, once you control the domain. | |
| Content & source files | The design, code, text and images. | Partly. Text, photos and logos you supplied or created are yours. The designer’s own code and design work is where copyright gets complicated — see below. |
One practical job to do today, whatever else happens: screenshot every page of the live site and download anything you still have access to. If relations sour further, you’ll be glad of the record.
Getting the domain back
Domain first: the Nominet and ICANN routes
The domain is the asset that matters most — it carries your email, your Google rankings and your identity. Everything else can be rebuilt; the domain can’t. If a WHOIS lookup shows the designer (or their company) as the registrant, here are the official routes.
.uk domains — the Nominet registrant transfer
Nominet is the official registry for every .uk domain, and it runs a straightforward online process for transferring a domain to a new registrant. At the time of writing, Nominet’s published process works like this:
- The transfer can be started through the registrar, or directly in a Nominet Online Services account if the registrar can’t or won’t help.
- The fee is £10 plus VAT, and either the current or the new registrant can pay it.
- The new registrant receives an email and must accept the transfer within 5 days, or it times out and the process starts again.
- Nominet’s registrant support line is 01865 332244 — they’re genuinely helpful to ordinary business owners, not just registrars.
Check Nominet’s site for the current fee and process before you start — details can change. The key point: the current registrant has to agree to the transfer. Nominet won’t seize a domain from your designer just because you feel it’s morally yours — but knowing the mechanism exists, and referencing it in writing, concentrates minds wonderfully. For genuinely contested ownership, Nominet also operates a Dispute Resolution Service — and at that point you should take legal advice.
.com and other global domains — the ICANN route
For .com, .net and most other global domains, transfers between registrars are governed by ICANN’s Transfer Policy. If you’re the listed registrant, you’re entitled to the transfer authorisation code, and a registrar who obstructs a legitimate transfer can be reported through ICANN’s complaint process. If the designer is the listed registrant, you’re back to negotiation or the escalation ladder below — and again, seek legal advice for a genuine dispute.
The awkward truth
Who actually owns the website? The copyright reality
Here’s the part most people find hardest to hear, so we’ll say it plainly and carefully.
As a general principle of UK copyright law (the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988), the person who creates a piece of work is usually the first owner of the copyright in it — even when someone else paid for it — unless a written agreement transfers ownership. Commissioning and fully paying for a website does not, by itself, automatically make the designer’s code and design your property; in many cases what you get by default is a licence to use it. Your own contribution — your text, your photos, your logo — remains yours.
This is general information, not legal advice, and the position always depends on the actual contract, the emails exchanged, and the facts. If real money or a genuine ownership dispute is at stake, speak to a solicitor — a one-hour consultation is cheap compared with guessing wrong.
The practical takeaways are simpler than the law:
- Dig out the paperwork. Contract, proposal, invoices, emails. Any line about ownership, IP or “on full payment” changes your position significantly.
- Your domain is not their copyright. Whatever the position on the design and code, a domain name registered for your business is a separate question — which is why the Nominet route above matters so much.
- Sometimes the smart move is to stop fighting for the files. If the site is a few years old anyway, reclaiming the domain and rebuilding fresh — on accounts in your own name — is often faster and cheaper than a war over copyright. We’ve set out how to do that without losing your Google rankings on our website rebuild page.
Be honest with yourself
If you owe them money, that comes first
An honest section you won’t find on many pages like this: sometimes the “hostage taker” has a point.
If there’s an unpaid invoice sitting between you and your designer, that is not a hostage situation — it’s a payment dispute, and a designer declining to do more work or hand over new deliverables until they’re paid is behaving like most businesses would. Settle what you genuinely owe, or agree a payment plan in writing, before you escalate anything. Turning up to Nominet or a solicitor with an unpaid bill in the background weakens every other argument you have.
Where the line gets crossed is asset-withholding after full payment: you’ve paid everything you agreed, and they still won’t transfer the domain, share the logins, or let you leave. Holding a business’s domain or email to ransom over a disputed extra, or simply to stop you moving to another provider, is a different thing entirely — and that’s what the escalation ladder is for.
If the two are tangled together — part-disputed invoice, part-withheld assets — separate them in writing: “We dispute invoice 123 for these reasons; separately, please confirm transfer of the domain, which is not conditional on it.” Clear separation makes every later step easier.
Step by step
The escalation ladder — calmest option first
Work through these in order. Most disputes end at step one or two.
- The polite written request. Email (not phone — you want a record) with a specific, reasonable list: transfer of the domain to your name, admin logins, a copy of the site files, and a date. Assume good faith; many designers keep everything in their name out of habit, not malice. Give 14 days.
- The formal letter. If ignored or refused, send a firmer letter — post and email — setting out what you’ve paid, what you’re asking for, and the steps you’ll take next (Nominet registrant transfer or DRS for a .uk domain, ICANN complaint for a .com, small claims for anything you’ve paid for and not received). If the designer trades as a limited company, Companies House will give you the registered office address to write to. Naming the actual mechanisms — accurately — is usually the moment things unstick.
- The official processes. Start the Nominet transfer or dispute route for .uk domains, or the ICANN route for global ones, as described above. These are designed to be used by ordinary registrants, not just lawyers.
- Small claims or a solicitor. For sums you’ve paid without receiving what was agreed, the small claims track of the county court exists precisely for this, and you don’t need a solicitor to use it. For anything involving contested ownership, defamation-adjacent nastiness, or serious money — get proper legal advice before acting. We’re an IT firm, not a law firm, and we’ll tell you the same on the phone.
And in parallel with all of it: quietly prepare your exit. Screenshot the site, save your content, note what the site does, and check what’s actually live and working with our free website checker. Whatever happens with the old designer, you want to be ready to stand the site up somewhere you control.
How we do it
Our promise: you own everything, in writing
We’ve been a family-run IT firm in Bournemouth since 1995, and we’ve helped untangle enough of these situations to have built the opposite arrangement into how we work:
- Your domain is registered to you — your name or your company as registrant, verifiable by anyone with a WHOIS lookup. Not us, not a reseller alias.
- Hosting and email accounts belong to you. We set them up, we manage them, but if you ever want to leave, you change the passwords and wave goodbye. No ransom possible — by design.
- One accountable firm for website, hosting, email, Microsoft 365 and day-to-day IT support — so there’s no gap between providers for your assets to fall into. Most of our work is done remotely, and we answer the phone Mon–Fri, 9–5.
If you’re mid-hostage-situation right now, we’re happy to be the calm second opinion: what’s reclaimable, what’s not worth the fight, and what it would take to rebuild cleanly on accounts in your own name. Once you’ve got the domain back, our website rebuild page explains how to replace the site itself without losing your Google rankings — and our web design & hosting page covers how the ongoing arrangement works. No pressure, no scare tactics, quoted per job.
// RELATED
- Web designer disappeared? — the recovery playbook when they’re not responding at all
- Website rebuild — how to replace the site without losing your Google rankings once you’ve got it back
- Free website checker — see what’s actually live and working on your site right now
- Web design & hosting — how it works when domain, hosting and email are all in your name
- Free tools — 39 free checkers and utilities, no sign-up
FAMILY-RUN SINCE 1995 · ★ 4.9 ON GOOGLE · 200+ COMPUTERS UNDER OUR CARE · NO FIX, NO FEE · SAME-DAY REMOTE SUPPORT
// GOOD QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
Can my web designer legally keep my domain name?
If the designer registered the domain in their own name, they are the legal registrant — even if you paid for it — and the registry won’t simply hand it to you. For .uk domains, Nominet’s registrant transfer process (£10 plus VAT at the time of writing) moves it to your name once the current registrant agrees, and Nominet runs a Dispute Resolution Service for contested cases. For a genuine ownership dispute, seek legal advice.
How do I find out who actually owns my domain?
Run a WHOIS lookup. For .uk domains, Nominet’s free WHOIS tool shows the registrant name. If it shows you or your company, you already control the most important asset. If it shows your designer or their company, start with a polite written request to transfer it, and use the Nominet or ICANN routes if that fails.
How much does a Nominet registrant transfer cost?
At the time of writing, Nominet charges £10 plus VAT to transfer a .uk domain to a new registrant, payable by either party. The new registrant must accept the transfer within 5 days or it times out. Check nominet.uk for current details, or call Nominet’s registrant support line on 01865 332244.
I paid in full — surely I own the website?
Not automatically. As a general principle of UK copyright law, the creator is usually the first owner of copyright in what they build unless a written agreement transfers it — even after full payment. Your own text, photos and logo remain yours. Check your contract for any ownership or IP clause, and speak to a solicitor if real money turns on the answer. This is general information, not legal advice.
My designer won’t hand over the WordPress login. What can I do?
Ask in writing with a deadline, then escalate with a formal letter. You can’t force access to systems in their control, but you can reclaim the domain through Nominet or ICANN routes, and a fresh site can be built on accounts you own. Often the credible, written prospect of you leaving with the domain is what produces the login.
Should I just give up on the old site and rebuild?
Sometimes, honestly, yes. If the site is dated anyway, fighting over its files can cost more than replacing it. The one asset worth fighting for is the domain, because it carries your email and your Google rankings. Reclaim that, then rebuild on hosting in your own name — done properly, with redirects preserved, you keep your search visibility.
What’s the difference between a designer holding my site hostage and one who’s disappeared?
A hostage situation means the designer is reachable but withholding access as leverage — the escalation ladder on this page applies. A disappeared designer — unreachable, retired or gone bust — needs a different recovery playbook: documenting contact attempts, Wayback Machine copies, Companies House checks and more. We cover that on our web designer disappeared page.
Do I have to keep paying their hosting invoices while we argue?
Be careful here. If your site and email live on the designer’s hosting, stopping payment can get the site suspended and, eventually, data deleted — which hurts you more than them. It’s usually wiser to keep essential services alive while you reclaim the domain and prepare a migration, then leave on your own timetable.
What if I genuinely owe the designer money?
Settle it, or agree a written payment plan, before escalating. A designer pausing work over an unpaid invoice isn’t taking hostages — that’s a normal payment dispute. The line is crossed when assets you’ve fully paid for are withheld to stop you leaving. If both are tangled together, separate them explicitly in writing.
Can 365 Techies handle the takeover for me?
Yes — that’s a normal job for us. We’ll check what’s reclaimable, help you through the Nominet or registrar process, move email safely, and host or rebuild the site on accounts registered in your name, so this can never happen to you again. We work remotely across Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset, quote per job, and we’re on 01202 775566, Mon–Fri 9–5.
Locked out of your own website?
Talk it through with a Dorset firm that’s been answering the same phone number since 1995. We’ll tell you honestly what you can reclaim, what it’ll take, and whether you even need us. Mon–Fri 9–5 on 01202 775566, or text 07520 615332.
01202 775566 · help@365techies.co.uk · MON–FRI 9AM–5PM