Your web designer has disappeared. Here’s how to get your website back.

You paid someone to build your website. Now they’ve stopped answering, the site’s broken or about to expire, and you’re not sure what you actually own. It’s more common than you’d think, and it’s usually fixable. Here’s what to check, in order.

Step 1: Find out who owns your domain

Your domain name — the .co.uk — is the thing worth saving. Your customers, your emails and Google all know it. The website on it can be rebuilt; the name is harder to replace.

For a .co.uk or .uk, go to nominet.uk (Nominet runs the .uk registry) and use its WHOIS lookup. It shows two things that matter:

• The registrant — the legal owner. Is it you, your business, or your web designer?
• The registrar — the company that manages it day to day.

For a .com, use a WHOIS lookup such as ICANN’s at lookup.icann.org. Many .com records hide the owner’s name for privacy, so you may need to contact the registrar it lists.

Step 2a: If the domain is in your name

Good news: it’s yours, and you can usually take control without your old designer.

• Nominet lets registrants manage their own .uk domains through its online services. If the email address on the record is one you can still get into, you can use it to get access.
• If the email on record is your designer’s, or one you’ve lost, Nominet has an identity-check process to update your details. There may be a small fee — check Nominet’s site for the current process and cost.
• To move to a new provider, you change the domain’s IPS tag to your new registrar’s tag. For .uk domains that doesn’t need the old registrar to agree.

Step 2b: If the domain is in your designer’s name

This is the harder case. Legally, the domain belongs to whoever is named as the registrant.

• Ask in writing for the domain to be transferred into your name. Keep it short and polite, and keep a copy. Include your invoice or anything that shows you paid for it.
• If they won’t or can’t, Nominet runs a Dispute Resolution Service for .uk domains, which starts with free mediation. Read Nominet’s guidance before you begin — it explains what evidence helps.
• Keep the domain alive meanwhile. Note the expiry date from the WHOIS lookup. If it lapses, someone else could register it.

Step 3: Get your website working again

If you can’t get into the hosting, recovering the old site can take longer than building a new one — especially for a small business that needs three or four pages.

• Write down what the old site said: services, areas, prices, opening hours. A search engine’s cached copy, or an archive such as the Wayback Machine, can help you remember.
• Gather your own photos.
• Rebuild on the same domain as soon as you control it. Keeping the same name, phone number and address is what keeps you findable.

With 3 Wee Pages you can build a replacement by answering a few questions, and see it before you pay. If your .co.uk is already yours, we’ll use it.

How to make sure it never happens again

• Your name on the domain. Check the WHOIS record says you, not your provider.
• A copy of your site. Ask for it, or choose a provider that lets you download it.
• A way out. Know what leaving costs before you sign up. At 3 Wee Pages it’s £25 to release your domain, and your .co.uk is registered in your name from day one.
• No single point of failure. Keep the login details for your domain and email somewhere safe, in your own name.

Nothing here is legal advice. For a dispute over who owns a domain, Nominet’s own guidance is the place to start.