Who owns your website domain, and how to check it in the UAE

The registrant controls the domain

Every domain has one registrant: the person or company named on the registration record. For .com and the other generic endings, ICANN's Transfer Policy puts it plainly: the registered name holder is the only party with authority to approve or deny a transfer to another registrar. Renewals, contact changes and the transfer code all run through whoever holds that record, or whoever controls the registrar account it sits in.

For .ae the wording differs but the effect is the same. The .ae Domain Administration (aeDA), which sits within the TDRA, states in its change-of-registrant policy that a registrant does not own a domain name. It holds a licence for a set period, and changing who holds that licence starts with a signed request from the current registrant's side.

When a domain ends up in an agency's name, it often starts innocently. A designer registers the domain in their own account, with their company as registrant, because it was quicker on the day. Years later the business wants to change supplier and finds that the name on its shopfront, its vans and its email addresses is on someone else's record.

What you actually need to own

"We own the website" usually means several separate accounts, each with its own login and owner.

The registrant and the contacts

The registrant should be your company's legal name, not the agency's. The admin, technical and billing contacts are people or roles for day-to-day matters, and an agency as technical contact is normal. aeDA's WHOIS policy lets the registrar or its reseller be the technical, administrative or billing contact on a .ae name, but not the registrant contact.

The registrar account

The registrar is the company the domain is registered through; the account is the login inside it. You can be the registrant while the domain sits in an agency's account, which still leaves them holding the keys.

DNS, hosting and the site itself

DNS points the domain at your website and your email, and whoever can edit it can take either offline in minutes. Hosting is the server account the site runs on, often with a different company. The files, database, theme and paid plug-ins are the site itself: without a copy, you rebuild from nothing if the relationship ends.

Google and social accounts

Google's help centre says a Business Profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, and that managers cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Search Console has owners too, verified by a token on the site. Our Google Business Profile checklist covers the profile side. Anyone doing SEO work for you, us included, should be a user on your Search Console property rather than its only owner. The same rule applies to Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn: the business holds the admin login and any agency connects as a manager or through a scheduling tool, as we describe in how to automate social media posting with AI.

Checking a .com or other generic domain

For .com, .net, .org and the other generic endings, use ICANN's free lookup tool at lookup.icann.org. It queries RDAP, which ICANN has treated as the definitive source of registration data for these domains since 28 January 2025, in place of the old WHOIS services. Read four things:

• Registrar. The company the domain is registered through.
• Reseller. ICANN's lookup FAQ says a reseller's name may appear if one was used. That is often your agency or its supplier.
• Dates. Including the expiry date, where shown. It tells you how urgent this is.
• Registrant organisation. If it names your agency, you have your answer.

Expect "redacted" in the contact fields. The same FAQ explains that applicable law and ICANN policy keep some registration data from the public. A redacted field tells you nothing either way, so check the registrar account instead: log in, or ask who can, and read the registrant name. If nobody at your business has ever had that login, that is a finding in itself.

Checking a .ae or co.ae domain

ICANN's tool covers generic domains. For .ae, use the WHOIS lookup on the TDRA website. We ran it on 24 September 2026 for two well-known .ae domains. The results showed the registrar, the status, the registrant or registrant contact name, the technical contact name and the name servers, but no email addresses and no registration or expiry dates. aeDA's WHOIS policy lists more fields that may be disclosed, so what you see can vary. For the expiry date, ask the registrar.

If the registrant shown is your web agency rather than your business, the domain is not in your name. For a co.ae that matters more than it looks. aeDA's .ae Domain Name Policy reserves co.ae for commercial entities trading in the UAE: the registrant needs a UAE trade licence (free-zone licences included) or a UAE trade mark application or registration, and the name must match or be closely connected to that business.

Ownership checklist

What to ask your agency for

Ask in writing, keep it friendly, and ask for everything at once.

1. A change of registrant, or the registrar login Either the registrant changed to your company, or the domain moved into a registrar account held in your name and email.
2. The transfer code For .com it is the auth code, EPP code or AuthInfo code, and ICANN says a registrar must provide it within five calendar days of a request. For .ae it is the domain name password: aeDA's password policy says the registrar must give it directly to the registrant, not through a reseller, within two business days where the contact details on record are correct.
3. A DNS export Every record, including MX and the SPF, DKIM and DMARC TXT records that keep your email working.
4. Everything else in the checklist Hosting access or a migration plan, a full site export, and the Google and social roles above. The agency can stay on as manager if you still work together.

Note the catch in step 2: if the agency is the registrant, the code goes to the agency, so you need them to act. When we build a site through our websites service, we register the domain in the client's own name from the start, which is the simplest way to avoid all of this.

Moving the domain into your name safely

.com and other generic domains

There are two separate jobs: changing the registrant (whose name is on the record) and changing the registrar (which company holds it). ICANN's registrant FAQ sets out the timing rules that catch people out:

• A registrar may refuse a transfer to another registrar while the domain is within 60 days of its initial registration.
• After a change to the registrant's name, organisation or email address, the domain is under a 60-day Change of Registrant lock and cannot move to another registrar. Some registrars let you opt out of this lock; they do not have to.

The same FAQ suggests finishing a registrar transfer before changing registrant details, if you intend to do both. With an agency-held domain, that usually means the agency approves the transfer into your own registrar account, and you update the registrant once it arrives. Before anything moves, save every DNS record and check it is in place at the new provider. Check the expiry date too: a domain that lapses mid-handover is a worse problem than one in the wrong name.

.ae and co.ae domains

A change of registrant for .ae goes through the registrar. aeDA's policy requires a written request explaining the transfer, signed by the current registrant contact; a phone call or email is not accepted. The registrar then needs confirmation from both the current registrant contact and the new registrant, and may add a service charge. TDRA's page on changing your domain name's registrant sets out the steps.

For restricted names such as co.ae, the new registrant must meet the eligibility rules, so have your trade licence to hand. The policy's permitted reasons for a transfer include a name registered by an agent, such as a marketing company, on a client's behalf where both agreed it would be transferred afterwards. A co.ae transfer issues a new licence at the standard fee for the period you choose.

Moving a .ae to a different registrar is a separate process. Under aeDA's change-of-registrar policy, neither registrar may charge a transfer fee, the current registrar must not delay or block it, you keep the remaining licence period, and a properly authorised transfer goes through two calendar days after the new registrar starts it. TDRA's own service page says a registrar transfer that is in order completes within three working days. You will need the domain name password.

If the agency does not respond

Keep the paper trail: your written request, renewal invoices and your contract. If you are already the registrant and only the login is missing, go to the registrar directly, since the registrant is the party it answers to. If the agency is the registrant, you need its cooperation or a formal route; aeDA publishes complaints handling and UAE domain name dispute resolution policies on its policies page. For contract questions, take legal advice.

Questions people ask

Sources

• ICANN, Transfer Policy: the registered name holder is the only party that can approve or deny a registrar transfer (read 24 September 2026)
• ICANN, FAQs for Registrants: Transferring Your Domain Name: auth code within five calendar days, 60-day limits after initial registration and after a change of registrant, optional opt-out, order of steps (read 24 September 2026)
• ICANN Lookup FAQ: what the tool returns, reseller field, redacted data (read 24 September 2026)
• ICANN, Launching RDAP; Sunsetting WHOIS: RDAP as the definitive source for generic domains from 28 January 2025 (read 24 September 2026)
• TDRA WHOIS lookup: fields displayed for .ae domains, checked with two live lookups (read 24 September 2026)
• aeDA WhoIs Data Collection and Display Policy (AEDA-POL-005, v1.1): fields that may be disclosed, contact rules (read 24 September 2026)
• aeDA .ae Domain Name Policy (AEDA-POL-007, v1.1): co.ae eligibility (read 24 September 2026)
• aeDA Domain Name Transfer: Change of Registrant (AEDA-POL-011, v1.1): licence not ownership, signed written request, agent-registered names, fees (read 24 September 2026)
• aeDA Domain Name Transfer: Change of Registrar (AEDA-POL-010, v1.0): no transfer fee, no delay, two calendar days (read 24 September 2026)
• aeDA Domain Name Password Policy (AEDA-POL-009, v1.0): password given directly to the registrant within two business days (read 24 September 2026)
• TDRA, Changing your domain name's registrant: registrant-change steps; registrar transfer within three working days (read 24 September 2026)
• TDRA, .aeDA policies: complaints and dispute resolution policies (read 24 September 2026)
• Google Business Profile Help, Manage owners and managers: owner and manager roles, primary owner, menu path (read 24 September 2026)
• Search Console Help, Managing owners, users, and permissions: owner types and verification (read 24 September 2026)

Drafted with AI assistance from our own research and the sources linked above, and reviewed by the High Street team before publishing. Prices, features and policies change; check the linked source before you act.