Your web developer has disappeared: how to get your website and domain back

Updated October 22, 2026 · 6 min read

Start with the domain, because the website, email and Google listing all depend on it. Look it up on auDA’s WHOIS tool. If your business is the registrant, you can get the domain’s authorisation code from the registrar yourself and move it within days, without the developer. If the developer is listed instead, that breaks the rules, but you’ll need their written cooperation or a complaint to the registrar. The code and design are a separate question: unless your contract assigned them to you in writing, the developer owns the copyright.

Step 1: find out who holds the domain

Search your domain on auDA’s WHOIS tool. It shows the registrant’s name and ABN or ACN, the registrar, any reseller the domain was bought through, its status and the registrant’s contact email. It doesn’t show the expiry date: auDA’s WHOIS policy, approved in February 2026, keeps creation and expiry dates off WHOIS because they were being used to send unsolicited renewal notices. Ignore renewal letters from companies you don’t deal with.

Step 2: if your business is the registrant

Ask the registrar of record for the authorisation code, the domain’s password, which is separate from any account login. Under auDA’s registrar rules, the registrar must give it to the registrant within two calendar days. If the contact details on record are out of date, it must first check your identity and then provide the code within two days. You can also request the code through auDA’s password recovery service, which sends it to the registrant contact email.

With the code, move the domain to a registrar where you hold the account. auDA charges no fee for a transfer between registrars, and it can take up to three days to take effect. Change the code within two days of the transfer, and update the contact details to an email you control.

Step 3: if the developer is the registrant

This shouldn’t have happened. auDA’s licensing rules say an agent registering a domain for someone else must record that person as the registrant, and auDA has told web developers the business must be listed, not the developer. Fixing it is slower:

• Ask in writing. A change of registrant needs a written request from the current registrant, so the easiest route is the developer’s cooperation. Put the request in an email and keep a copy.
• Correction. The rules allow a correction where a registrar wrongly recorded the reseller or agent as the registrant, but only within 14 days of registration unless auDA authorises it.
• Complaint. Complain to the registrar of record first; it has 30 days to resolve it. If that fails, you can ask auDA to review. An upheld complaint can get a name cancelled, but it won’t transfer the name to you, according to auDA’s complaints process.
• Dispute. If the developer holds the name in bad faith, the .au dispute resolution policy can transfer it to you. You must prove the name matches a name or mark you have rights in, that the registrant has no legitimate interest in it, and bad faith. Fees start at A$2,000.

Step 4: hosting, the website and Google

auDA’s complaints process doesn’t cover web hosting or website content, so deal with the hosting company directly. Ask who holds the hosting account, and whether you can be added as the account holder; invoices showing you paid for the hosting help.

Once you control the domain, verify your ownership in Google Search Console by adding a DNS record, then remove the developer’s verification so they can’t re-verify, as Google’s help explains. If the developer controls your Google Business Profile, request ownership: the current owner has three days to respond, after which you may be able to claim it, though that option isn’t always available.

Who owns the code and design

Under the Copyright Act, computer programs are literary works, the author owns the copyright, and an employer owns it only for an employee’s work. A contractor keeps it, and an assignment only works if it is in writing and signed. IP Australia says the same applies to websites, designs and logos made by contractors.

That doesn’t automatically mean you lose the site. In some circumstances, a non-exclusive licence can be implied from how you and the developer dealt with each other, which may let you keep using what you paid for, according to the SA Law Handbook. Moving it, copying it or having someone else change it is where you may need the developer’s permission, so get legal advice before you rebuild on their code.

If they want money or won’t cooperate

• Unfair terms. Since November 2023, unfair terms in standard form contracts are banned for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees or turnover under A$10 million, such as a term letting one side end or change the contract, according to the ACCC. The ACCC named unfair contract terms among its 2026–27 priorities.
• Consumer guarantees. A service bought for your business that costs less than A$100,000 must be provided with due care and skill, be fit for purpose and arrive within a reasonable time, the ACCC says. Its own example is a website that can’t do what the buyer asked.
• Low-cost help. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman helps with contract and payment disputes, and received 8,623 requests for assistance in 2025–26, according to its data portal. Eligible businesses can get two hours of preliminary legal advice for a A$100 co-payment through its low-cost advice program.

State small business commissioners offer mediation for a small fee:

So it doesn’t happen again

• The domain is registered to your business, and you hold the registrar account.
• The hosting account is in your business’s name, with your email as the contact.
• The contract assigns the code, design, words and photos to you in writing.
• You hold admin logins to the website, hosting, Google Search Console and Google Business Profile, and add the developer as a user rather than the owner.
• Someone writes down how the site is built and where everything lives.

Sources

• auDA: How to use the .au WHOIS tool
• auDA: WHOIS Policy 2025-11 (approved February 2026)
• auDA: .au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing (June 2026)
• auDA: .au Domain Administration Rules: Registrar (June 2026)
• auDA: Additional .au domain name services
• auDA: How to transfer your .au domain name
• auDA: Changes to third-party use of .au domain names
• auDA: Submit a complaint and the auDRP process
• Google: Verify your site ownership and Manage users, owners and permissions
• Google: Request ownership of a Business Profile
• Federal Register of Legislation: Copyright Act 1968 (compilation in force 2 April 2026)
• IP Australia: Who owns intellectual property?
• SA Law Handbook: Assignments and licences
• ACCC: Contracts (July 2026)
• ACCC: Compliance and enforcement priorities 2026–27 (February 2026)
• ACCC: Small business rights and responsibilities (October 2026)
• ASBFEO: Dispute support, Access to low cost advice and Small business population and key issues (2025–26)
• NSW Small Business Commission: How does mediation work?
• Victorian Small Business Commission: Resolving a commercial dispute (May 2026)
• SBDC Western Australia: Dispute resolution service
• SA Small Business Commission: Mediation (June 2026)
• Business Queensland: Resolving business disputes (July 2026)

Rules, fees and procedures were checked in October 2026 and can change. General information, not legal advice.