The website was built a few years ago by a freelancer, or by a nephew who knew his way around computers. He registered the domain name, set up the e-mail addresses and moved on. Everything works. Then one day you need to change hosting, tighten e-mail security or recover an account, and nobody in the company knows whose name the domain is registered in.
DNS Belgium, the registry for .be names, pointed out in February 2026 that many business owners assume they hold their domain name when it was often registered by their web developer, an agency or an employee. Only the holder can move the website, manage the e-mail addresses or put the name up for sale.
Here is how to check in fifteen minutes, and how to document the rest of the "keys" to your IT.
Three roles people mix up
The holder (registrant) is the person or company the domain is registered to. For DNS Belgium, the holder is the name's only owner.
The registrar is the company that manages the name on the holder's behalf and bills the renewal. You can't register a .be directly with DNS Belgium; you go through a registrar. The registrar, and only the registrar, can change the holder's contact details.
The technical services that run on the domain: the DNS zone, website hosting, e-mail (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and so on). Some sit with the registrar, some elsewhere, each with its own admin account.
A small business can pay for its hosting and e-mail for years without being the holder of its domain. That is the first thing to check.
Check who the holder is
- On the dnsbelgium.be home page, type your domain name and show the details.
- If the holder is a company, its name, address and an e-mail address are displayed. You should see your company's exact name.
- If no holder details are shown, the domain is most likely registered to a private individual, whose details DNS Belgium hides by default. That person could be you, a former employee or the web developer.
- Request the registration certificate from the same page. DNS Belgium only sends it to the holder's e-mail address as recorded in its system. If it never arrives (check your spam folder), that address isn't yours or no longer works.
For a .com, .eu or .fr the logic is the same, but the rules and tools depend on each extension's registry. Start by asking your registrar for a written statement of the holder of each domain.
If the domain isn't in the company's name
A change of holder goes through a transfer code. For a .be, the code is five groups of three digits. Anyone can request it on the DNS Belgium site or through any registrar, but it is always e-mailed to the current holder, and it stays valid for seven days. The current holder passes it to you, and the registrar carries out the change of holder.
In practice, that means you need the registered person's cooperation. Get in touch, explain the steps and agree the transfer in writing. If the registrar refuses to update the holder's e-mail address, the holder can file a complaint with DNS Belgium's legal department (legal@dnsbelgium.be). If the name is held by a third party and talks have stalled, DNS Belgium points to its terms and conditions and its legal department. At that point, speak to your lawyer.
The renewal nobody notices
A .be normally expires one year after registration and is renewed when you pay your registrar. If the invoice goes unpaid, the registrar deletes the name. The domain then spends 40 days in quarantine: it is inactive, so the website and e-mail that depend on it stop working. During that period the registrar can reactivate it at your request. Once the 40 days are up, anyone can register it.
The renewal invoice often goes to whoever did the original registration. Have it sent to a shared company address that several people read, rather than to one person's mailbox, because people leave.
The other keys: admin accounts
The domain is only one of the keys. The others are the admin accounts for the services the business depends on:
- your account with the registrar and with the DNS host;
- e-mail administration (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace);
- the back office of the website and the ERP;
- the firewall, the NAS, the Wi-Fi;
- online tools paid by card (storage, e-signature, accounting).
For Microsoft 365, Microsoft recommends at least two emergency admin accounts that aren't tied to any particular person, and fewer than five Global Administrators. Admins do their day-to-day work with an ordinary account and sign in to the admin account only when they need it. I apply the same rule to the other services: at least two people in the company can sign in as administrator, and not with their everyday account.
A one-page sheet
I keep it all in one table, one row per service:
- the service and what it's used for;
- the holder of the contract or domain (the company, not a person);
- the supplier and customer number;
- the admin login, without the password;
- where the password is kept (the company's password manager vault, for instance);
- the device that receives the two-factor codes;
- the renewal date and who pays;
- who has access, with the date it was last checked.
The table contains no passwords. It tells you where they are and who holds them. Review it once a year and whenever an employee or a supplier leaves.
Where to start this week
Check the holder of each of your domains on dnsbelgium.be and request the registration certificate. Have the holder's e-mail address and the billing address corrected if they point to one person. Start the sheet with the five services you couldn't do without for a week, and fill it in with your IT provider.
If you'd like to do this inventory with someone, on a prepaid hour pack: info@z80.be, +32 494 111 041.