How do we get the HOA website domain and social media accounts back from a former volunteer?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 18, 2026

How an HOA board gets its website domain, Facebook page and other accounts back from a former volunteer: lookups, a written request, registrar steps and a fallback.

Part of the HOA board handbook: residents and communication.

The short answer

Ask in writing first, because most former volunteers hand things over once someone asks clearly and gives them a deadline. While you wait, find out who the registrar is and when the domain expires, so a lapse does not make the decision for you. If the person refuses or has vanished, the registrar or platform will only act on proof that the account belongs to the association, and neither ICANN nor the registrar will referee the dispute for you. Plan a fallback early: a new domain and a new page can be live in a weekend, and sometimes starting over is cheaper than winning the old one back. Rules vary by state and by your governing documents, and this guide is education, not legal advice. Bring in the association's attorney before threatening a lawsuit.

Find out what you are dealing with

Make a list of every account the volunteer controlled: the domain registrar, web hosting, email, the Facebook page or group, Nextdoor, any payment or survey tools. For the domain, run it through ICANN's registration data lookup at lookup.icann.org, which replaced the old WHOIS tool in January 2025 for generic domains like .com and .org. Note the registrar and the expiration date. Many registrations hide the owner's name for privacy, so the lookup may not tell you whose name is on it. Check your own files for receipts: if association funds paid for the domain or hosting, the treasurer's records are your best evidence that it belongs to the association. In Florida, section 720.303(4) lists the official records an HOA must keep, and associations with 100 or more parcels have had to post their governing documents and other records on a website since January 1, 2025 under section 720.303(4)(b). Texas section 207.006 requires an HOA with at least 60 lots, or one with a management company, to post its recorded dedicatory instruments on a website. If your website is how you meet a rule like that, losing it is a compliance problem, not just an annoyance.

Send a clear written request

Keep the first message short, friendly and specific. Name each account, say what the board needs, and give a date. Email it and send a copy by first-class mail. A version you can adapt: "Thank you for running the association website and Facebook page. The board voted on [date] to move these accounts to association control. Please do the following by [date, 14 days out]: add [name], [title], as a full-control admin on the Facebook page; send the transfer code for [domain] or move it to the association's registrar account at [registrar]; and send any hosting and email logins you hold. If anything has a cost, tell us and the association will cover it. Reply to [role email] with questions." Record the board's vote in the minutes before you send it, so the request comes from the association and not from one director. If the person is still a member and feels pushed out, a phone call from a director they get along with often works better than a second email.

Moving the domain once they cooperate

There are two ways to do it. The volunteer can change the registrant name and contact details to the association inside their current registrar account, then hand over the login. Or they can request the transfer authorization code and you move the domain to a registrar account the association opens. Under ICANN's Transfer Policy, a registrar without a self-service tool has to provide that code within five calendar days of the registrant's request. Expect timing rules. A registrar can refuse to move a domain to another registrar within 60 days of its creation or last transfer, and after a change of registrant, registrars apply a 60-day lock on moving it to a new registrar unless the registrant opts out. ICANN's board adopted revisions to these rules on June 7, 2026, but no effective date has been set, so plan around the current rules. Once the domain is yours, put it in the association's name, list two directors as contacts using role email addresses, turn on multifactor login, and set it to auto-renew on an association card. Our guide on board email and shared accounts covers the inventory that keeps this from happening again.

When they refuse or cannot be reached

Go to the registrar with proof. Ask its support team what it accepts in an ownership dispute; most want documents showing the association paid for the domain or is the named registrant, plus a letter from an officer on association letterhead. If the volunteer registered it in their own name with their own money, the registrar will usually treat them as the owner. ICANN says plainly that it does not get involved in disputes over domain ownership and cannot transfer or return a domain to anyone. Its registrant pages list a lawsuit against the current registrant as the route to force a change. That is the point where the board needs the attorney, and where the cost should be weighed against simply buying a new domain. Facebook works the same way. People with full control of a page can add or remove anyone else, and Meta's own help pages tell you to contact the people who worked on the page if you lose access. Meta's nonprofit team describes a Page Release request for organizations with no reachable admin, which needs a government photo ID, a signed statement on letterhead and screenshots, and it warns the process can take from 2 weeks to over 6 months.

Watch the expiration date

A domain the volunteer stops paying for is not lost the moment it expires. ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires registrars to send renewal notices about a month and a week before expiration, and another one if the name is not renewed or deleted within five days after it. Those notices go to the registrant's email, not yours. After expiration the website stops resolving, and the registrar must let the registrant renew for a period. Once the registrar deletes the name, generic registries keep it in a 30-day redemption grace period in which only the registrant can restore it. Registrars may charge extra fees to renew or restore a late name, and after that the name can be released to anyone, including a squatter. If the expiration date is close and the volunteer will not act, decide now whether to fight for the name or move on, and tell owners the new address before the old site goes dark.

Starting over without the old accounts

Sometimes the fastest fix is a fresh start. Register a new domain in the association's name, rebuild the site from your own copies of the governing documents, and create a new page with at least two directors as full-control admins. Then tell owners in the next mailing and by email that the old site and page are no longer official, and give the new addresses. In Colorado, section 38-33.3-209.4(3) lets an association make its annual disclosures by posting them on a web page and mailing or emailing owners the address, so update that notice too. Ask the platform to mark or remove the old page if it still uses the association's name, and keep a dated screenshot of what it said when you lost control. If it later posts something an owner might mistake for official, you will want that record. Expect a slow trickle of owners who still use the old address for a year.

Mistakes that make it worse

The biggest is letting one volunteer register accounts in their own name in the first place, so put a rule in your account policy that every account belongs to the association, is paid with association funds and has at least two directors on it. Others: accusing the volunteer of theft in an email to the whole community, which turns a paperwork problem into a defamation fight; letting the domain lapse while the board argues; paying a third party who promises to recover the account for a fee; and forgetting the email address tied to the domain, which may be the recovery address for your bank and payment portal. CISA's guidance on DNS tampering tells organizations to keep an up-to-date inventory of every domain they own and require multifactor login on any account that can change it. If the former volunteer also has records, treat that as a separate request; our guide on getting HOA records back from a former management company has a request format that works for individuals too.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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