Changing the owner of a domain

A change of ownership process is the only legitimate means of modifying the contact information for the registered owner of a domain name.

Reasons for doing an owner change :

To move a domain from one organization or account to another.

To transfer ownership to a third party.

To indicate a change in the first or last name of the domain owner.

Any change in the company's status, including the identification number (Siret/Siren for French companies, for example) if the domain owner is a company.

Effects of an owner change on the domain and related services:

How to change the owner of a domain name (standard procedure)

1. Create the order

For a single domain

A. Log in to your Gandi account, then go to "DOMAIN" in the left-hand menu.

B. Choose the domain from your list of domain names, go to the administration page and in the navigation menu, choose the "Domain Contacts" tab on the left.

C. In the Owner section, click on "Change".

Choose the new owner 

You'll come to a page with several potential options, depending on the type of organization under which the domain is currently registered.

• One of my organizations: Allows you to change the current owner to an existing organization.
• A third party: If you have not yet created the organization for the new owner, or if you are transferring the domain to a third party who has nothing to do with you, you will need to select this option and enter the exact information for the new owner.
• Me: If the domain is currently under a "professional" organization (i.e. a company), you can change the owner to your natural person organization. NOTE: if the domain is already under your personal organization, this choice will not be displayed.

For multiple domains

1. Log in to your Gandi account, then go to "DOMAIN" in the left-hand menu.
2. Go to Advanced View (the corresponding button should have a dark background) to the left of the search bar.

3. Tick the boxes to the left of the domains you wish to transfer to a new owner.

4. Click on "Manage contacts" in the menu at the bottom of the page, then on "Change owner".

Proceed to the next step

When you're done, click on "Add to cart" (single domain) or "Continue" (multiple domains) to launch the operation.

At this stage we check that the new owner's details comply with the relevant registry's rules for domain ownership, and you are given the opportunity to edit any missing or incorrect information before proceeding to payment.

2. Confirm the emails

Once the change of owner operation has been launched, we send two confirmation emails which must be validated within 15 days:

• a confirmation email to the current owner's address
• a confirmation email to the new owner's address.

Note:

If the email address is the same for both accounts, you will only have to validate one email.

Once you have confirmed both emails (if applicable), each of the two parties will receive an email confirming the owner change at the registry.

3. Import the domain

The new owner must accept a final email inviting them to manage the domain before it becomes visible in their domain list.

For most owner changes, once both the old and the new owner have confirmed the change of owner via the emails sent to them in the previous step of the process, another invitation to manage the domain will be sent to the new owner's email address, asking them :

a) if they wish to import the domain into an existing Gandi account with the same email address, in which case they simply need to log in, or

b) if they prefer to create a new account.

In either case, the choice must be made within 15 days.

If the 15-day period is exceeded, you will need to contact Gandi support so that they can send out a new invitation.

Once this last stage has been completed, the domain will be available in the chosen account.

Note: 

Case 1: an owner change within an account with two organizations 

If an owner change is done via an account with two organizations, each with a different company name, and the domain in question is moved from one organization to the other within the same account, then no invitation to manage is sent. In that case, the domain is automatically moved (the owner is changed) after the confirmation emails sent in the second step of the process have been validated. 

Case 2: a change of owner within an account with more than two organizations or multiple user names 

In all other cases, for example if the account in question has more than two organizations or if the domain ownership has been assigned to another username, an invitation to manage is sent to the new owner.