Reclaim your website when the agency stops responding

Your emails have gone unanswered for three weeks. The phone goes to voicemail. The last update to your website was six months ago. And you’ve just discovered, while searching, that your domain name is registered in the agency’s name — not yours.

Reclaiming your website when the agency stops responding is first and foremost a question of method. There are four distinct assets to take back in the right order: the domain name, the hosting, the source code, and the connected third-party accounts. Each has its own entry point and its own recovery procedure.

This guide gives you the concrete sequence to take back control — without service interruption for your customers, and without paying twice for something you’ve already paid for.

Spotting the ghosting (the 4 telltale signs)

Before panicking, check it’s actually ghosting and not a delay. The four warning signs:

• Over 14 days without response to an explicit email. A quote request can wait; an urgent transfer request shouldn’t.
• No proactive communication. No reports, no invoices, no message when something breaks.
• Polite but repeated refusal to share credentials. “We’ll send those over next week” for the past two months.
• Partial disappearance. The agency’s own website is offline, the number doesn’t work anymore, LinkedIn is frozen.

If three out of four are true, you’re not in a delay. You’re in active ghosting. The next step is reclaiming your assets without waiting for a reply that won’t come.

First things first: who owns what?

A website isn’t one asset. It’s four separate assets, each potentially held by a different person:

1. The domain name (yourcompany.lu). Registered with a registrar (OVH, Gandi, EuroDNS, Cloudflare…) under someone’s name.
2. The hosting (server, database). An account with a provider (OVH, AWS, etc.) tied to a credit card.
3. The source code (the website’s files). On a Git repository or a hard drive.
4. Third-party accounts (Google Business Profile, Stripe, Mailchimp, analytics). Each with its own login.

To check where you stand, ask yourself five questions:

• What email address receives the registrar’s renewal invoices for the domain?
• Do you have credentials to log into the hosting account directly?
• Has anyone shared a GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket link to your code?
• Are you an Administrator (not just an Editor) on the Google Business Profile?
• Do Stripe’s emails arrive in your inbox or in the agency’s?

If the five answers are “no” or “I don’t know”, everything needs sorting out. A case like ProHabitat Luxembourg shows that domain authority stays intact if each asset is handled methodically — their Top 3 Google ranking didn’t drop after the handover.

This article covers the technical steps. For the upstream question of legal ownership, see website ownership: how to verify.

Reclaiming the domain name

This is the most critical asset. Without the domain you lose your email, your SEO, your brand. Three typical cases:

Case 1 — The domain is registered in your name. Go to the registrar’s website (verifiable via the public WHOIS lookup, rel="noopener"). Request a password reset to your email. If it arrives, you’re back in control in 30 minutes.

Case 2 — The domain is registered in the agency’s name. Request a transfer code (auth code, EPP code). The agency is legally required to provide it if you’re the end client who paid. If they refuse, escalate to the registrar (ICANN forced transfer procedure for .com/.net, EURid for .eu, DNS.lu for .lu).

Case 3 — The contact email on the domain is the agency’s. First, change that email via the registrar (often possible with proof of ID of the director and a Kbis/RCS extract). Then request the transfer code.

For .lu specifically, DNS.lu (rel="noopener") — the official Luxembourg registry — accepts holder transfers with a signed document. Count 5 to 10 business days.

Reclaiming hosting and database

Hosting is where the site’s files and database live. If the agency put everything on its own hosting account, you have two options:

Option A — Migrate to your own account. Create a new account with the host of your choice (in your name, with your card). Ask the agency for a complete export: files plus database dump. Rebuild. It’s longer, but it’s clean.

Option B — Request a transfer of account ownership. Some platforms allow it (admin transfer on dashboard; NIC transfer for classic servers). The agency just has to validate a transfer request from their interface. You inherit the history, SSL certificates, redirects.

Whatever happens, request immediately:

• Full export of site files (.zip or read-only SFTP access)
• Database dump (.sql file)
• List of active SSL certificates and their expiry dates
• Any 301 redirects in place

Without these four items, you won’t be able to rebuild the site identically elsewhere.

Reclaiming the source code

The source code is the set of files that makes your website work. Three questions to ask:

• Where is the code stored? (Public Git, private Git, ZIP on a Drive, FTP on the server)
• Who owns the intellectual property according to the contract?
• Can you get a full repository, not just a frozen export?

Ideally, you receive a full Git repository transferred to your own GitHub/GitLab account. That gives you the entire version history and lets you have any other provider pick up the project without friction.

If the agency refuses that level of transfer, you can at minimum demand a static copy of the code (exported HTML/CSS/JS) that lets any developer rebuild from a clean base.

On the contractual side, IP ownership of the code depends on what’s written (or not) in your service agreement. By default in Luxembourg, the client doesn’t automatically own the code — which is why you want an explicit clause from the start.

Reclaiming third-party accounts (Google Business, Stripe, Mailchimp…)

A website rarely lives alone. It’s connected to a cluster of third-party accounts, each with its own recovery process:

• Google Business Profile: if your listing is managed by the agency, request a primary admin transfer from the Google Business interface. If the agency doesn’t respond, Google allows you to claim a listing (rel="noopener") by proving you’re the legitimate owner (business documents + physical address).
• Google Analytics / GA4: add your address as administrator if possible. Otherwise, create a new property on your new site — you lose the history but it’s recoverable.
• Google Search Console: re-verify ownership via DNS TXT record (which you control once you have the domain).
• Stripe / payments: if the account is in the agency’s name, create your own. Financial flows don’t transfer.
• Mailchimp / newsletter: export the subscriber list as CSV. Create your own account. Re-import in two clicks.
• Forms (Formspree, Typeform, Tally): export historical submissions as CSV. Reconfigure on your account.

Audit all services sending notifications to email addresses connected to the agency — that’s where the gotchas usually live.

Migrating without service interruption

The migration itself takes a few hours if everything is ready. The goal: zero minute of downtime for your customers.

The typical sequence:

1. Prepare a full copy of the site on the new hosting. Test on a temporary preview URL.
2. Verify rendering on mobile, desktop, forms, payments. Everything must work before switching.
3. Lower DNS TTL (3600s → 300s) 24h before the switch, so the change propagates fast.
4. Switch DNS: point www and @ to the new hosting. Typical propagation: 5 to 30 minutes.
5. Verify 301 redirects: if URLs changed, every old URL must redirect to the new one to preserve SEO.
6. Test from multiple networks (mobile 4G, fibre, abroad) that the site responds correctly.

The AutoRachat Luxembourg case illustrates this path — clean rebuild with +75% conversion after handover, no visible commercial interruption.

During migration, local SEO is the most sensitive topic — a redirect detail mishandled can drop local Maps rankings within 48h. If your site depends on local SEO, local SEO Luxembourg in 90 days covers what to preserve.

Locking it in so this never happens again

Once you’ve taken back control, spend 30 minutes locking in your technical independence. Five clauses to systematically require from your next provider, ideally in the contract:

1. The domain name is registered in the client’s name, on a registrar of the client’s choice, with the client’s contact email.
2. All admin accesses (hosting, GA4, Search Console, Google Business, Stripe…) are created in the client’s name. The provider is invited as a secondary admin, never as owner.
3. The source code is delivered on a Git repository owned by the client (client’s GitHub/GitLab organisation). The provider pushes, the client owns the repo.
4. An explicit reversibility clause in the contract: in case of termination, the provider delivers within X business days all the exports needed (code, data, accounts).
5. An annual access review: who has access to what, is it still needed, dormant accounts are closed.

These five points cost nothing to set up at the start. And they save you from reliving the situation that brought you to this article.

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Frequently asked questions

Is my agency legally required to give me my source code?

It depends on the contract. Without an explicit clause, intellectual property of the code stays with the provider under Luxembourg and European law. If nothing has been stipulated, you have a right to use (you can use the site) but not a right to modify or transfer. That’s why you want an explicit assignment of rights or licence clause from day one — and in case of dispute, a formal notice by registered mail formalises your request before any legal recourse.

How long does it take to migrate a website without downtime?

Between 2 and 7 days in practice, most of it preparation. The actual downtime visible to your customers only lasts a few minutes — the time for the DNS change to propagate. If the old hosting stays functional during the migration (you pay for both services in parallel for 48h), visible downtime can be zero.

What if my former provider refuses to hand over the accesses?

First step: formal notice by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, listing the assets you’re requesting (domain, code, accounts) and a reasonable deadline (10 business days). Second step: escalate to the domain registrar via the forced transfer procedure — usable if you can prove you’re the actual economic beneficiary. Third step, if needed: technical reconstruction from a static copy of the existing site (scraped HTML) by a new provider — that gets you running quickly, while the legal dispute proceeds separately.

How do I avoid ending up in this situation with a new provider?

Write the five points from the “Locking it in” chapter into the contract from signature: domain in your name, admin accesses in your name, code delivered on your Git repo, explicit reversibility clause, annual access review. These conditions are non-negotiable — a serious provider accepts them without discussion. A provider who refuses is setting you up for exactly the situation you’ve just escaped.

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Going further

To understand upstream who actually owns your site — domain, hosting, code, content — and how to check in five minutes: website ownership: how to verify.

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What we do at Slash.lu

When a client arrives after a ghosting, we start by mapping the four assets: domain, hosting, code, third-party accounts. We identify what can be reclaimed, what needs rebuilding, and what requires a formal notice. No magic promise, just a clear sequence.

For Solenergie, the migration took 60 days, without losing a local Google Maps position — on the contrary, the clean handover paved the way from zero leads to a full order book. The rule at Slash.lu stays the same: one single contact from start to finish, not an intermediary who disappears.

We can talk for 30 minutes. Book a slot. Whether you work with us afterwards or not.

→ Explore our web design service for the details of our method.