You only really own your website if three things are in your name: the domain name, the technical access accounts (hosting, DNS, administration) and the copyright on the design and the code. Paying the invoice is not enough. In many Belgian SMEs, none of the three is in the company's name, and that only comes to light the day you need to change provider.
The domain name is the most sensitive point. According to DNS Belgium, the registry for .be addresses, 1,701,999 .be domain names were active at the end of 2025, of which 207,776 were registered that year. Each one has an official holder recorded in the registry, and that holder is not necessarily the party who paid. On the rights side, article XI.167, paragraph 3, of the Belgian Code of Economic Law is unambiguous: without an express assignment clause in the contract, the economic rights stay with the author of the site.
The stakes are not theoretical. A provider who stops replying, a freelancer who closes shop, an agency that gets acquired: if the domain and the access accounts sit with them, your site, your email addresses and your Google history become hostage to a third party.
Whoever pays the invoice is not automatically the party recorded as the holder.
What owning your website actually means
Ownership of a site splits into three independent layers. They can perfectly well belong to three different parties, which explains why so many business owners believe they are covered when they are not.
The domain name: the holder, not the payer
The registry (DNS Belgium for a .be) records a holder, with a name and an email address. That record is what counts, not the invoice. If your provider registered the domain in their own name to save you the trouble, they are the legal holder and you are, in practice, a tenant.
Hosting and technical access
Around the hosting sit accounts worth as much as the site itself: the DNS zone, the site administration, the professional mailbox, Google Search Console, Analytics, your Google Business Profile, the backups. A perfectly working site whose access accounts you do not hold remains unmanageable without a third party's consent.
Copyright on the design and the code
This is the layer most often forgotten. A graphic template, a brand system, a custom development: all of it is a protected work. Article XI.167, paragraph 3, second subparagraph of the Code of Economic Law provides that the economic rights only pass to the commissioning party if the assignment is expressly provided for in the contract. A contract that says nothing on this leaves the rights with the author.
A website can be paid for in full and still remain, legally, the property of its author.
Domain name: check it in two minutes, take it back in seven days
This is the easiest point to verify, and the one that unblocks everything else. The choice of extension matters too (we cover that in our article on the .be or .com domain name), but the question of the holder applies to every extension.
How to find out who holds your domain name
For a .be, query the public WHOIS of DNS Belgium: you will see the declared holder and the registrar that technically manages the registration. For a .com, .eu or .net, the holder's details are often masked for data protection reasons, so ask for written confirmation stating the exact name of the holder and the associated email address.
That email address is the detail that changes everything. It is where the registry sends renewal notices and, above all, the transfer code.
The .be transfer code, and why nobody can refuse it
DNS Belgium designed the procedure so the holder stays in control of their domain name. A transfer code is required to move a .be to another registrar, and that code can be requested directly from the registry, which sends it to the holder's email address on file. In other words: if you are the holder with your own email address, you do not need your provider's approval.
The rules published by DNS Belgium set out the framework:
the authorisation code is valid for 7 days;
it can be resent three times during that period, each resend restarting the 7 days;
once the valid code is submitted to the new registrar, the transfer is executed immediately;
the former registrar is merely informed of the departure, it cannot block it.
The only real condition is therefore an up to date email address you can actually access. If the address on file is your provider's, that is where the code goes, and that is exactly the situation to correct.
For a .com: the ICANN rule
Generic extensions follow ICANN's Transfer Policy. Two points to remember: a domain cannot be transferred within 60 days of its creation, and the registrar must provide the authorisation code to the holder within 5 calendar days of the request. A provider who drags beyond that is operating outside the framework.
Access accounts: the list to recover, point by point
Recovering the domain without the access accounts solves only half the problem. Here is the inventory to build, in a company password manager rather than in the owner's inbox.
Registrar account: the account managing the domain registration, in the company's name.
DNS zone: control of the A, CNAME, MX, SPF and DKIM records, without which you can neither move the site nor repair your email.
Hosting: access to the control panel and to the backups.
Site administration: an administrator account on a company email address, not the agency's.
Professional email: the admin console for your mailboxes, not just your own credentials.
Google Search Console and Analytics: ownership must sit with a company account, with providers invited as users only.
Google Business Profile: you must be the owner, not merely a manager.
Source files: the logo in vector format, the brand system, the visuals, and the code if custom development was carried out.
The habit that prevents most future deadlocks: create a generic address such as admin@your-domain.be and use it for all of these accounts. It survives departing staff as well as changes of provider, and it makes the maintenance of your site transferable without friction.
When things go wrong: two common scenarios
The domain was not renewed
An unrenewed .be does not vanish straight away. It goes into quarantine for 40 days, during which the site and the emails stop working. After that, DNS Belgium releases it to whoever wants to register it. One important detail during quarantine: only the registrar that deleted the domain can reactivate it. If that registrar belongs to your unreachable former provider, your 40 days run out without you being able to act. That is the most concrete argument for never leaving renewal in a third party's hands.
The provider refuses to cooperate
Three levers, in this order. Request the transfer code directly from the registry if you are the holder: that bypasses the problem entirely. Then formalise the request in writing, citing the 5 day deadline in the Transfer Policy for generic extensions. Finally, if the holder's email address is no longer yours, DNS Belgium provides a procedure to correct that address: it is the way out when the dialogue breaks down.
In every case, do not start over on a new domain out of frustration: you would lose the history built up on the old address, which costs far more than an administrative procedure. If a rebuild is unavoidable anyway, the method is set out in our rebuild checklist that protects your search visibility.
Frequently asked questions
My agency registered my domain name: is it mine?
Not necessarily. What counts is the name recorded as the holder in the registry. If that is the agency's name, the domain is legally theirs, even if you have been paying for it for years. Check the WHOIS and, if needed, request a change of holder to your company.
Can I change agency without rebuilding my website?
Yes, provided you hold all three layers: domain, technical access and rights over the design and the code. If the assignment of rights was never written into the contract, the new provider cannot freely take over and modify the existing work. In that case, negotiate a written assignment with the author before the split.
How long do I have to recover an expired .be domain name?
Forty days of quarantine, during which the domain is unusable but still recoverable, solely through the registrar that deleted it. After that, anyone can register it. Act on the first day of the outage, not in the fourth week.
What clause should I ask for in a website build contract?
An express assignment of the economic rights, specifying the scope (reproduction, adaptation, publication online), the duration, the territory, and the right to have the work modified by a third party. That last point is the one people forget, and it is the one that blocks future rebuilds.
Priority action plan
Check the holder of your domain name: query the WHOIS for a .be, request written confirmation for other extensions. Note the holder's email address too.
Correct the holder's email address if it is not one you control. That address receives the transfer code and the renewal alerts.
Create a generic administration address in the company's name, then attach the registrar, the hosting, the site, Search Console and the Google profile to it.
Reread your contract and look for the assignment of rights clause. If it is missing, request a written addendum rather than waiting for the next rebuild.
Put the domain renewal on automatic payment with a company card, plus a reminder in your calendar a month before the expiry date.
This work takes half a day and produces no visible effect on your site. Yet it is what separates an SME that changes provider in a week from an SME that loses its address, its emails and ten years of search visibility because a freelancer closed shop.
Unsure what is actually in your name? We audit ownership and access before any website build for Belgian SMEs.
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October 3, 2026
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