Guide · Decisions
Built as a favour,
years ago.
A relative or a friend built the site, it worked, and then they got a job and stopped answering. It is the most common situation we are called into, and the technical part is usually the easy half.
Published 2026-09-24 · Formory Group
First, find out what you control.
Three things matter and they are often in three different places: the domain registration, the hosting account, and the email. Run a WHOIS lookup on your domain to see who is listed as the registrant, and check whether any renewal invoice arrives in your name.
If the answer to all three is “I do not know”, that is the actual problem, not the design. A site you cannot access is a site that ends the day the hosting card expires.
Ask for access, not for the site.
The conversation goes better when the request is small and specific: the registrar login, the hosting login, and a copy of the files. Not “I am replacing your work” — that is a conversation about feelings rather than admin.
Put it in writing, keep it friendly, and offer to take over the renewals so it stops being their responsibility. Most people are relieved.
When they cannot be reached.
The domain is recoverable through the registrar's process if the business can prove it is the business — registration documents, invoices, matching contact details. It is slow and it usually works.
The hosting rarely matters: the site can be rebuilt from what is publicly visible, and the Web Archive often holds the rest. The domain is the only irreplaceable part.
What to keep.
The domain, obviously. The page addresses, so existing links keep working. Any text that is genuinely good — favour-built sites are often plainer and more honest than agency ones, which is a virtue.
What usually has to go is the structure: a single page listing every service, no mobile layout, and no way to make contact except a phone number.
Make the ending clean.
Once you have access, change the passwords, add two-factor authentication, and put the renewals on a card you control with a calendar reminder. Whatever happens next, the business owns its own name.
Then decide about the site itself with no pressure. Plenty of favour-built sites need three fixes rather than a rebuild, and we say so when that is the case.
Questions
Straight answers.
They registered the domain in their own name. Is it mine?
Legally it depends on the arrangement, and practically it depends on the registrar's dispute process and what you can document. Ask nicely first; it resolves this the overwhelming majority of the time.
Can I just start a new domain?
You can, and you will lose whatever recognition and links the old one had, plus every printed card and vehicle sign pointing at it. Recovering the original is almost always cheaper.
Is it rude to replace a friend's work?
Framing it as taking a chore off their hands is both kinder and usually accurate. They stopped answering because it became an obligation, not because they were precious about it.
Two minutes
Where does your
own site land?
Everything above came from opening real websites. Yours takes ten seconds: we load it the way a customer would and say what we find, including when the honest answer is that nothing needs doing.
Think yours needs
rebuilding?
Send us the address and what you do. We will look at what is there and tell you whether a rebuild is worth the money, or whether the problem is somewhere else entirely.