If you've already gone through the first checklist — checked who owns your domain, checked who's hosting your site, and you're still stuck — this is the next step: one email, sent once, that puts everything in writing and gives you a clear paper trail either way.
Don't overthink the wording. It doesn't need to be angry, and it doesn't need to be a legal threat. It needs to be clear, dated, and specific — the kind of email that's easy to act on if they respond, and easy to point to later if they don't.
The email, word for word
Copy this, fill in the bracketed parts, and send it from an email address you actually check.
Access to [Your Business Name] website & domain — response needed by [date]
Hi [Name],
I haven't been able to reach you by phone or text since [date of last contact], so I wanted to put this in writing.
I need the following by [a specific date — 5 business days out is reasonable]:
- Login access to my domain registrar account (or confirmation of which registrar my domain is with, if I need to look it up myself)
- Login access to my hosting account
- A copy of all website files, or confirmation of where they're currently hosted
If I don't hear back by [date], I'll assume this project is no longer active and will move forward on my own — recovering access through the registrar/host directly, disputing any related charges, or starting fresh with a new developer.
I'd rather resolve this directly with you. Let me know if you need anything from me to get this moving.
[Your name]
[Your phone number]
A few notes on why it's written this way:
- The subject line has a date in it. That alone gets more replies than a vague "following up" subject — it signals this isn't a casual check-in.
- It lists exactly three things, not a vague "can you help me sort out my website." Specific, checkable requests are far more likely to get a specific, checkable response.
- It states the consequence plainly, without threats. You're not promising to sue anyone — you're stating what any reasonable business owner would do next. That's exactly what a bank, a lawyer, or a new developer will want to see later if this escalates.
Sent it and still hearing nothing? You don't have to solve this alone — I'll help you sort out what's recoverable and what a clean rebuild looks like, free mockup included.
Get my free mockup →If the deadline passes with no response
You have three parallel paths, and you don't need to pick just one:
- Domain: Contact your registrar directly (the company from the WHOIS lookup in the first post). If the domain is registered in your name but they're withholding the login, registrars have recovery processes for exactly this. If it's registered in their name, this gets harder — worth a quick call to the registrar to ask what's possible.
- Payment dispute: If you paid by credit card and services were never delivered as promised, a chargeback is a legitimate option — check your card issuer's timeline, since most have a window that closes a certain number of months after the charge.
- Start clean: You don't need the old files to move forward. A rebuild from scratch, done right, is often faster than continuing to chase down what's already gone.
One email doesn't guarantee a resolution — but it does guarantee you're not stuck wondering "did I even try." You did. Now it's just a matter of which of the three paths above gets you moving again fastest.