How do I transfer a domain to someone else?
The short answer
Two different things get called a transfer. Moving a domain to a different registrar needs an unlock and an authorisation code. Moving it to a different person or business is a change of registrant, which is often a separate step. Do both if the domain is genuinely changing hands, or you can end up with the domain in a new account but still legally registered to the old owner.
On this page
Two things called "transfer"
Registrar transfer. The domain moves from one company that manages domains to another. The owner stays the same.
Change of registrant. The registered owner changes — from a developer to a client, from one business to another. The registrar may stay the same.
When a domain genuinely changes hands you usually need both, and doing only the first is the most common mistake. The domain sits in the new person's account while the registration record still names the old owner — which is exactly the situation that causes trouble years later.
The registrar transfer, step by step
1. Unlock the domain. Domains carry a transfer lock by default. The current owner turns it off in the registrar's control panel.
2. Get the authorisation code. Sometimes called an EPP code or auth code. The current registrar provides it, occasionally after a short delay.
3. Disable privacy protection temporarily, if it is on. Some registrars need the contact email visible to send the confirmation.
4. Start the transfer at the new registrar with the domain and the code.
5. Approve the confirmation email. Sent to the registered contact address. This is where transfers stall — if that address is an old inbox nobody reads, the transfer times out silently.
6. Wait. Usually five to seven days. It cannot be rushed.
The change of registrant
Handled in the registrar's contact settings — updating the registrant name, organisation and email to the new owner.
Two things to know:
It may require confirmation from both parties, by email, and both need working addresses.
It can trigger a sixty-day transfer lock. Changing the registrant often prevents moving the domain to another registrar for sixty days.
That second point determines the order.
The order that avoids the sixty-day trap
If the domain is both changing hands and moving registrar:
Transfer the registrar first, then change the registrant.
Do it the other way and the registrant change locks the domain, and you wait two months to complete the move. The lock is a security measure and it does not care that the change was authorised.
The blockers
The domain was registered or renewed within the last sixty days. New registrations cannot be transferred for sixty days. Renewals can trigger the same lock at some registrars.
The contact email is dead. The most common failure. Update the contact address before starting anything.
Unpaid balance or a dispute. Registrars will refuse.
The domain is expiring soon. Renew first. Transfers do not complete on an expired domain, and an expired domain can be lost entirely.
For a business receiving a domain
Once it is yours, spend five minutes:
- Confirm the registrant is your business, not just the account holder — check the actual record
- Turn auto-renew on, with a card that will not expire first
- Turn the registrar lock back on
- Use a role-based email like
[email protected]rather than one person's inbox - Note the renewal date somewhere that is not one person's calendar
That last one matters more than it sounds. The most common way businesses lose a domain is not a dispute — it is a renewal notice sent to somebody who left.
When the registrant is your website supplier
There is a version of this that has nothing to do with selling a business: your website supplier registered the domain, and it is in their name. Technically the fix is a change of registrant, and everything above applies unchanged.
The better outcome is not needing the fix. A supplier managing your DNS is normal and fine; a supplier being the registrant is not. Those are different things, and the second is what turns a routine parting of ways into a negotiation.
It is a fair thing to ask about before you commit to anyone. Helm registers the domain in the client's business name as a matter of course, for exactly the reason this article exists — so it stays a process you can read about rather than one you have to run.