What happens to your website if you die?

What might happen to your web site when you die is something most people probably haven’t thought about.

Despite the language often used about ‘buying’ a domain name, you don’t actually own it in the sense you would own a piece of land. It’s more like renting it on a short or long lease from a domain registrar.

If no one has gone into your account to renew it, the lease will expire and the property will go back onto the open market to be rented by someone else (90 days after the expiry date). With your web hosting, as an individual, your contract may come to an end with your death (check your terms and conditions) or at least with the cancellation of any cards used to pay for it.

As a small business it’s especially vital that you take steps to decide in advance what you want to happen to your web site if the worst should happen.

Your death may not mean the death of your business, so you should make sure the domain and any hosting accounts are registered to the business name, not to an individual.

Even if you’re a sole trader and the business will technically end with you, there may be details that still need wrapping up by your executors. Someone will likely need access, even if it’s only to close everything down neatly or to get a copy of your data so that it doesn’t just disappear. The reasons for that could be legal (you may have a stored trading history that still needs addressing for customers), or sentimental (your family wanting to keep a memory of you).

It’s also likely that your email is using your company domain name. If your hosting or domain disappears, so does your email access and, potentially, your email history too.

Where possible, have multiple people registered to manage your domain names and hosting. It will make things a lot easier if people are authorised to have access before anything bad happens. There can be legal issues of someone else accessing an account using your personal credentials, so give them their own account if you can.

You should also make sure that the registrant type on the domain registration relates to your business type and doesn’t just say “Individual” or “Other UK Entity”.

Here is a list of .co.uk registrant types: http://registrars.nominet.org.uk/registration-and-domain-management/field-definitions-and-registrant-types#Registrant%20types

Basically, you should ensure that it is possible for someone else to be able to legally get into your business’ domain account and hosting account after your death. They must be able to prove that they are connected to your business or that they are executors of your will relating to your business.

This also relates to your social media accounts and any cloud services you use for your business. Ensure that someone else can legally access them if you no longer can.