# Our domain and hosting sit in a colleague's personal account, and he leaves at the end of the year | Illia BizTech > Everything hangs off his personal account and his personal credit card. He is willing to hand it over, but nobody knows what handing over means here. Source: https://illia-biztech.de/en/forum/our-domain-and-hosting-sit-in-a-colleague-s-personal-account-and-he-leaves-at-the-end-of-the-year 1. [Home](/en) 2. [Forum](/en/forum) 3. Our domain and hosting sit in a colleague's personal account, and he leaves at the end of the year # Our domain and hosting sit in a colleague's personal account, and he leaves at the end of the year Everything hangs off his personal account and his personal credit card. He is willing to hand it over, but nobody knows what handing over means here. * ##### Asked on August 26, 2026 Years ago a colleague from our technical team organised the website, and to this day everything hangs off his personal IONOS account and his personal credit card. He leaves on 31 December and is entirely willing to hand it all over. What we do not know is what handing over means in this case. Passing on the password feels wrong, and the invoices would still be issued in his name. Our company is named in the site's legal notice, while the contract with the provider appears to be in his own name. #### Answers ![Portrait of Illia Belichenko, technical specialist at Illia BizTech](/_ipx/f_webp,q_75/https://cms.illia-biztech.de/uploads/small_Illia_Belichenko_author_81f88864f0.png) ##### Illia Belichenko ✓ Accepted answer August 27, 2026 Your instinct about the password is sound. Handing one over only pushes the problem out by a year, because the contract and the card still belong to a private individual who will not be with you after December. The process you need is a contract transfer, and every provider has one. It runs in writing and requires [a declaration of assignment from the outgoing party and consent from the incoming one, both signed](https://www.strato.de/faq/vertrag/was-ist-eine-vertragsuebergabe-und-was-muss-beachtet-werden/). Your colleague signs as the party giving it up, your management as the party taking it on. After that the company is named in the contract, the invoices come to the business and your colleague's card can go. Two things get confused at this point. The contract with the host and the registered domain holder are separate records, and the second one matters more: it decides who owns the domain. Settle both in the same operation, or you will have moved half of it. Watch out for the confirmation email. After a change of holder, a message goes to the address held for the holder, and [if it is not confirmed within the deadline the domain can be suspended](https://www.hosteurope.de/faq/domains/verwaltung/domaininhaber-oder-admin-c-aendern). So before you start, set the contact address to a company mailbox that several people read, rather than the mailbox of the colleague who leaves in December. While you are at it: in an arrangement like this, Search Console, the Google Business Profile, the analytics and the mail accounts almost always hang off the same personal login. Make a list while your colleague is still there and still willing to help. In January it becomes a favour; today it is an item in his handover. ##### #### [The quote was 6,000 euros and the invoice came to 9,500\. Do we have to pay it?](/en/forum/the-quote-was-6-000-euros-and-the-invoice-came-to-9-500-do-we-have-to-pay-it) September 5, 2026 [](/en/forum/the-quote-was-6-000-euros-and-the-invoice-came-to-9-500-do-we-have-to-pay-it) #### [The confirmation email from our contact form lands in customers' spam. Why?](/en/forum/the-confirmation-email-from-our-contact-form-lands-in-customers-spam-why) September 4, 2026 [](/en/forum/the-confirmation-email-from-our-contact-form-lands-in-customers-spam-why) #### [We received a letter about Google Fonts demanding 170 euros. Do we pay?](/en/forum/we-received-a-letter-about-google-fonts-demanding-170-euros-do-we-pay) September 4, 2026 [](/en/forum/we-received-a-letter-about-google-fonts-demanding-170-euros-do-we-pay) #### [Our shop window carries the company name in German and Upper Sorbian. How do we write it on Google?](/en/forum/our-shop-window-carries-the-company-name-in-german-and-upper-sorbian-how-do-we-write-it-on-google) September 3, 2026 [](/en/forum/our-shop-window-carries-the-company-name-in-german-and-upper-sorbian-how-do-we-write-it-on-google) #### [What counts as a normal cost per enquiry from Google Ads?](/en/forum/what-counts-as-a-normal-cost-per-enquiry-from-google-ads) September 3, 2026 [](/en/forum/what-counts-as-a-normal-cost-per-enquiry-from-google-ads) **Share** **Topics** * domain * hosting * handover