Who Owns My Domain? How to Check the Registrant (.sg and .com)

Why the domain registrant matters

Every domain has a registrant (the legal holder), a registrar (the company you pay, such as Vodien, GoDaddy or Cloudflare) and a registry (SGNIC for .sg, Verisign for .com). The registrant is the one who can approve transfers, change contacts and renew. For .sg, SGNIC's FAQ says registrants are bound by a Domain Name Registration Agreement with SGNIC and a commercial agreement with their registrar.

Problems start when the registrant is not your business. Common cases:

• A web agency registered the domain under its own company name or account.
• A staff member who has since left used their personal email and Singpass.
• A relative or co-founder registered it before the company existed.
• The domain sits in a reseller's account and you only ever received invoices.

Any of these means someone else can stop renewals, move the domain or point email elsewhere. Checking takes five minutes.

How to check who owns a .sg domain

SGNIC, the .sg registry, offers a free WHOIS search on sgnic.sg (the Whois Search link at the top of the site).

1. 1

   Open SGNIC's Whois Search

   Go to sgnic.sg, choose Whois Search and type the domain, for example yourbusiness.com.sg.

2. 2

   Read the registrar and dates

   Note the registrar name, creation date, expiry date and status codes such as Registry Lock or VerifiedID@SG status.

3. 3

   Read the registrant and contacts

   Check the registrant name and the administrative contact. These should be your company and someone currently in your business.

4. 4

   Compare with your records

   If the registrant is an agency, a past employee or a name you do not recognise, move on to the fix section below.

SGNIC's domain registration FAQ says it does not display sensitive data such as a registrant's NRIC number, and since 1 June 2005 it masks the email addresses and phone numbers of the registrant, administrative and billing contacts. The technical contact is shown in full so technical problems can be resolved quickly. So you will usually see names but not personal emails.

How to check who owns a .com or other generic domain

For .com, .net, .org, .shop and other generic top-level domains (gTLDs), use ICANN Lookup. It queries RDAP, the protocol ICANN describes as the replacement for WHOIS. ICANN's RDAP page says gTLD registries and registrars must provide RDAP, and since 28 January 2025 most no longer have to run old-style WHOIS.

Expect a lot of fields to read REDACTED. Under ICANN's Registration Data Policy, in force since 21 August 2025, registrars must redact personal data where the law requires it and may do so more widely. Many redact by default.

Since that policy took effect, ICANN treats the Organisation field, when filled in, as the legal holder of the domain. If your company name is in that field, your company holds it; if it is blank, the individual named holds it. Check that the Organisation field in your registrar account says your company, not your agency.

The most reliable check: your registrar account

Public lookups show only part of the record. The definitive record is inside the registrar account where the domain is managed. If you can log in and see the domain listed, you can view the full registrant details, change contacts, turn on locks and get a transfer code.

If you cannot tick the first box, you do not control your domain, whatever the WHOIS says.

What to do if your agency or an ex-employee is the registrant

Start politely and in writing. Most agencies register domains for convenience, not to hold clients hostage, and will change the registrant if asked.

1. 1

   Ask for a registrant change, in writing

   Email the agency or person and ask them to change the registrant and Organisation to your company and the admin contact to you. Keep the reply.

2. 2

   Or ask for the domain to be moved to your account

   Many registrars let one customer push a domain to another customer's account. This keeps everything else the same.

3. 3

   For a registrar change, get the transfer code

   For .sg, SGNIC says the registrant gets a domain transfer password from the current registrar and gives it to the new one. If the old registrar does not act, SGNIC approves the transfer after 7 days.

4. 4

   Settle any genuine unpaid invoices

   SGNIC notes the current registrar may require outstanding payments before a transfer. Clear legitimate bills so they cannot be used as a reason to refuse.

5. 5

   Escalate if they refuse

   Contact the registrar with proof of your business's use of the domain. Our guide to getting your domain back from an agency covers the escalation route.

Once you hold the domain, our guide to transferring a .sg domain to a new registrar explains the move step by step.

Keep your registrant details current

Ownership problems usually come from details nobody updated. Review the record once a year and whenever something changes: a new company name after incorporation, a director leaving, a new office address or a change of IT provider. SGNIC's FAQ says to contact your registrar to update contact information.

Use a role email you control, such as domains@ or admin@ on a different domain or a mailbox that does not depend on this domain, so renewal notices still reach you if the website or email breaks.

Do it yourself or get help?

Checking the registrant is a five-minute DIY job with SGNIC's WHOIS or ICANN Lookup. Getting the record fixed, moving the domain into an account you own and setting locks and renewals properly takes more care, especially when email depends on it.

Our Domain & DNS Setup (S$99) registers or transfers the domain in your business's name, sets the DNS records for website and email, and turns on auto-renew so it never lapses.