100% Australian owned and operated
The short answer
To move a .com.au into another person’s or business’s name, you need a change of registrant through the provider that manages the domain. Both the current and new holder must be eligible on the day, both usually confirm by email, and you pay for a new licence period: whole years left carry over, part-years don’t. A correction only fixes genuine errors, within 14 days of the licence being recorded.
- Selling a business? The domain doesn’t go with it automatically. The rules from auDA (.au Domain Administration, the body that sets the .au rules) say the change must be requested within 28 days of the sale contract, unless the contract says otherwise.
- Going from sole trader to company? Change the registrant before you cancel the old ABN (Australian Business Number).
- Check the registrant’s email first. Corrections and changes of registrant both send their confirmation links there.
- Cost: auDA doesn’t set what providers charge for it, so check the total before you start.
Change of registrant, correction or transfer: which one do you need?
If the domain is going to a different person, company, trust or ABN, you need a change of registrant (often shortened to CoR). If the holder stays the same and the record has a genuine mistake, a correction may do. If you only want a different provider, that’s a transfer, and the registrant doesn’t change at all.
If you searched for “transfer ownership of a .com.au”, this is the process you want, with one fix to the wording: nobody owns a .com.au. The registrant holds a licence to use the name, and a change of registrant hands that licence to someone else. Under auDA’s rules the old licence agreement ends and the new registrant signs a fresh one (rule 2.13.5), for a new licence period: the term a .au licence runs for, one to five years. It’s done through your provider, meaning the registrar or reseller you pay for the domain. A registrar is accredited to change records in the registry, the master list of names for an ending such as .au; a reseller sells through a registrar.
| Route | Use it when | Time limit | Who confirms | What you pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Correction rules 2.18.2–2.18.4 | The record has a genuine error: wrong details at registration, the wrong party, or the reseller’s or agent’s name used by mistake | Within 14 days of the licence being recorded | The registrant, by email link | Usually nothing |
| Details update (contact details) rules 2.11.9, 2.18.5 | Contact details have changed | Tell your provider within 14 days of finding out about the change | The registrant | Usually nothing |
| Change of registrant rules 2.13.1–2.13.7 | The domain is going to a different person, company, trust or ABN | Within 28 days of a sale contract (unless it says otherwise), always before the licence expires, and not while a complaint or dispute is open | Both the current and the new registrant | A new licence period of at least a year, plus any provider fee. Whole years left carry over |
| Transfer to another provider rule 2.13.8 | Same registrant, different provider | Not while the licence is suspended | The registrant, with the domain password | See the domain password guide |
A company that renamed itself but kept its ACN (Australian Company Number) isn’t changing hands, so it usually isn’t a change of registrant. The rules don’t give a clean route for the new name, though. Some providers record it as an update and others as a correction, so ask yours.
A correction is narrow on purpose. auDA’s rules allow one only for a genuine, good-faith mistake, in the situations in the table, or where auDA authorises it. It isn’t a way to move a name to a different business, and a transfer that doesn’t follow the rules ends with the licence, or the transfer, being cancelled (rules 2.13.6–2.13.7). Past the 14 days with a genuine error? Ask your provider what it can do before you pay for a change of registrant.
You can change the registrant and move provider one after the other. auDA’s rules add no waiting period between them for a .au name, though a provider may have its own policy.
Which route fits your situation?
It depends on whether the domain is changing hands. A new person or business needs a change of registrant; the same holder fixing an error or updating its details needs a correction or an update. Find your situation below.
| Situation | What you need | Do it before | Who acts |
|---|---|---|---|
| A spelling mistake made at registration | Correction | 14 days after the licence was recorded | Registrant |
| Registered by mistake in the reseller’s or agent’s name | Correction if within 14 days. After that, a change of registrant with the agent’s consent, or ask your provider whether auDA will authorise a correction | 14 days after the licence was recorded | Registrant, or the agent and then you |
| Company renamed, same ACN | Usually not a change of registrant. Ask your provider whether it records the new name as an update or a correction | 14 days after you find out about the change | Registrant |
| Sole trader becoming a company | Change of registrant to the company | You cancel the sole-trader ABN | You, as both parties |
| Selling the business | Change of registrant to the buyer | 28 days after the contract (unless it says otherwise), and before the seller cancels its ABN or deregisters | Seller starts and confirms; buyer confirms |
| ABN already cancelled | Change of registrant with documents, or re-apply for the ABN if the same person still trades | The licence is suspended | Registrant and provider |
| Company that holds it deregistered | Documents for auDA showing the company agreed to transfer it before it ceased | 30 days after deregistration | Former directors or the new user |
| Registrant has died (an individual, such as a sole trader) | The executor (the person who administers the estate) transfers or cancels the licence | A reasonable time | Executor |
| Registrant inbox no longer works | Update the email through the provider | Starting any of the above | Registrant and provider |
| Seller won’t cooperate | The sale contract and legal advice | — | Your lawyer |
How does a change of registrant work, step by step?
The current registrant starts it, both sides confirm, and the provider completes it. You can do the first three steps today, before anyone pays anything. In order:
Look the domain up
auDA’s WHOIS (the public lookup for domain records) at whois.auda.org.au shows the registrant’s name, its ABN or ACN, and the registrar. If you bought the name through a reseller, deal with the reseller. What a .au lookup shows.
Check the new holder qualifies
For a .com.au, the new registrant must be a commercial entity, such as a company, or a sole trader, partnership or trust with an ABN. The name must match, or be an acronym of, its company, business or personal name (or, for a body set up by legislation, its statutory name), a related Australian company’s name, or the name of a partnership it’s a partner in or a trust it’s a trustee of. It can also match its Australian trade mark, or match, or be a synonym of, its goods, services, events, activities or premises (rule 2.4.4). The .com.au page has examples.
Make sure the registrant’s email works
The confirmation goes to the address on file. If that inbox is dead, fix it first.
Start it, and pay
The current registrant puts the request to the provider in writing, and the new licence period is paid for. auDA’s rules say the new registrant pays the new licence fee (rule 2.13.2), so if you’re selling, agree in the contract who covers it. Your provider may also ask for the domain password.
Both sides confirm
At most providers, the current and the new registrant each get an email link to approve. The new registrant enters its details and accepts the new licence agreement.
The provider completes it
The registrar confirms both parties are eligible, then has two calendar days from the request to make the change. Look the domain up again to check the new name and number show.
Tidy up the contacts
Make sure the contact email now belongs to the new holder, so future confirmations and codes reach the right person.
Selling or buying a business: does the domain go with it?
Not automatically. The domain licence has to be transferred separately, through the provider, and auDA’s rules say the request must be made within 28 calendar days of entering the contract to transfer it, unless the contract says otherwise (rule 2.13.4). auDA’s own comparison is transferring a car’s registration: both sides have to do something.
- Name every domain in the contract: the .com.au, the matching .au if there is one, and anything else. auDA’s registry search can list every .au licence issued using your details.
- The business name is a separate transfer. It moves through ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission): the current holder starts it in ASIC Connect, ASIC’s online service, and gives the buyer a transfer number. ASIC’s page doesn’t mention domain names.
- Finish before the seller winds up. The seller has to still be eligible on the day, so do it before the seller cancels its ABN or deregisters.
- Don’t just let the buyer use it. auDA’s rules say a registrant mustn’t rent out, lease or let anyone else use the licence, except a related Australian company (rule 2.11.12), and they list that as a reason a licence will be cancelled (rule 2.16.10). Finish the change of registrant promptly, rather than leaving the name with the seller while the buyer uses it.
The buyer has to qualify for the .com.au in its own right. No ABN yet? See getting a domain without an ABN.
This is general information about auDA’s rules, not legal advice. If you’re buying or selling a business, ask your lawyer or conveyancer to list every domain name in the contract.
Going from sole trader to company: what order should you do it in?
Register the company, change the registrant of the .com.au to the company, and only then cancel your sole-trader ABN. The order matters because auDA’s rules require the current registrant, which is you as a sole trader, to still be eligible on the day of the change (rule 2.13.1).
business.gov.au (the Australian Government’s business information site) says a sole trader’s ABN can’t be transferred to a company: you register the company, move licences and assets across, then cancel the old ABN once your obligations are met. It doesn’t mention domain names, so the domain is easy to miss.
If your domain matches your business name rather than the company’s own name, the timing of steps 2 and 3 matters. The company needs the business name to qualify as the new holder, because auDA’s rules accept a match with the holder’s business name (rule 2.4.4). But you, as the sole trader, also have to be eligible on the day of the change (rule 2.13.1), and ASIC says the old holder’s registration of a transferred business name is cancelled within 28 days. The rules don’t say how a provider weighs the two, so ask yours before you move the business name, and do the two steps close together.
What if the ABN is already cancelled, or the company deregistered?
There may still be a way, if you move quickly. A cancelled ABN can often be sorted out with a change of registrant, but it isn’t guaranteed: strictly, auDA’s rules need the current holder to still be eligible on the day (rule 2.13.1), which is why providers ask for documents. A deregistered company’s licence is treated as cancelled 30 days after deregistration.
The registrant has to stay eligible for the whole licence period (rule 2.11.7), so a cancelled ABN or ACN puts the licence at risk of suspension or cancellation. A suspended licence stops resolving in the DNS (Domain Name System, the internet’s directory of names), so the website and email on it stop working, and the rules say it can’t be transferred. There are 30 days to fix it before it’s cancelled (rules 2.16.5–2.16.7).
- ABN cancelled, licence not suspended yet. Providers usually want documents, such as a sale agreement signed before the cancellation, or a statutory declaration (a written statement signed before an authorised witness, such as a Justice of the Peace). If you were a sole trader and still trade, re-applying for the ABN may be simpler.
- Licence already suspended. Ask your provider straight away what it can do within the 30 days.
- Company deregistered. auDA treats the licence as cancelled 30 calendar days after a registrant stops existing: deregistered on 2 February 2020, cancelled on 2 March 2020, in the rules’ own example. The exception is documents showing that, before it ceased, the company agreed to transfer the licence to whoever now uses the name, with the transfer meeting the usual rules. From the cancellation date, no transfer is possible (rules 2.11.2–2.11.3).
auDA may choose to restore a cancelled licence, with no fee, but only if the name hasn’t been issued to someone else (rules 2.16.11–2.16.12). For the ABN check at renewal, see the ABN check on .com.au renewals.
What happens to the time left, and what does it cost?
You pay for a new licence period. Whole years left on the old licence carry over to the new registrant, up to the five-year maximum, and any part-year is lost.
auDA’s transfer page says only full years carry over. Its example is a licence with three years and two months left, which becomes a three-year licence for the new registrant. Some provider help pages say all the remaining time is lost, so check your provider’s terms before you start. Providers that add the year you pay for, as Chill’s dashboard does, work like this:
| Time left before the change | New registrant ends up with (one year paid for) | Lost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year 11 months | 2 years | 11 months |
| 366 days | 2 years | 1 day |
| 360 days | 1 year | 360 days |
auDA doesn’t set what providers charge for a change of registrant. Some charge a fee for the change, because they have to check both parties are eligible, on top of the new licence period; some bundle the two. Check the total, including GST (Goods and Services Tax), before you start.
What if the registrant’s email no longer works?
Fix that first. A correction and a change of registrant both send their confirmation links to the registrant address on file, so a dead inbox stalls both. auDA’s Registrar Rules, the rules every .au registrar must follow, also say a registrar mustn’t transfer a licence to a new registrant while the contact details in the registry are wrong or incomplete (rule 2.10.13).
If the address belongs to a former employee or an old web designer, a self-serve correction won’t fix it, because its confirmation link goes to that same dead inbox. auDA’s rules let contact details be updated at any time on a written request (rules 2.18.5–2.18.6), so ask your provider how to do that when the registrant’s own inbox is the dead one; it may need doing by hand. auDA’s domain password recovery tool also sends the password to that inbox, so getting your .com.au domain password covers this from the other side.
Can auDA make a seller hand over the domain?
No. auDA’s complaints page says an upheld complaint “will not result in the .au domain name being transferred to the complainant”.
Complaints go to the registrar first, then to auDA if you’re not satisfied. At most, a licence that breaks the rules can be cancelled, and then the name is open to whoever is eligible and registers it next. The auDRP (.au Dispute Resolution Policy) is a separate route for disputes over intellectual property (IP) rights: it goes to an auDA-approved provider and costs a fee. It can end in the name being transferred, but only where IP rights are being infringed, so it doesn’t settle a contract dispute between a buyer and a seller. And while a complaint, dispute or court case about the licence is open, auDA’s rules don’t allow a change of registrant at all (rule 2.13.1).
The practical protection is the contract. List every domain in it, and get legal advice if a seller won’t cooperate.
What about .com and other generic endings?
Different rules apply. Names like .com come under ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), not auDA, and for .com, .net and most other generic endings the new holder doesn’t have to pass an eligibility test.
ICANN’s current Transfer Policy says that after a change of registrant, the registrar must lock the name against moving to another registrar for 60 days, although registrars may let you opt out beforehand. On 7 June 2026, ICANN’s Board adopted recommendations from its council for generic-name policy, the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) Council, that remove that lock. They take effect only once ICANN has implemented them, and no date had been set when we checked. Until then, ICANN’s policy suggests moving to the new registrar first and changing the registrant second. If you plan to do both, ask your provider first. Transfers, locks and status codes explains what a transfer lock does.
At Chill Domains. Sign in, open the domain and choose .au registrant change. Correction is free, for a genuine mistake in the details. Change of registrant is for a new person or business. It’s paid before it starts, and refunded automatically if the registry refuses to start it. It renews the licence for a year under the new registrant: whole years left carry over, any part-year is lost, and the dashboard shows how many days that would be. Both the current and the new registrant confirm by email, and once both have, it can’t be undone. Cancelling before then is free but doesn’t refund the fee, because the registry charges as soon as the change starts. If the licence expires before both of you confirm, the fee isn’t refunded automatically either; email us and we can have it put towards renewing.
Both options email the registrant address on file, so if that inbox no longer works, email us first and we’ll handle it by hand. Eligibility is checked in the registry’s verification, not by us, so make sure the new holder qualifies before you pay. For .com and other generic endings, you edit the registrant directly in the dashboard, at no charge.
The dashboard shows the price, including GST, before you pay.
Questions people ask
Our company changed its name but kept its ACN. Is that a change of registrant?
How long does a change of registrant take?
Do I need the domain password to change the registrant?
Can a change of registrant be undone?
The registrant has died. What happens to the domain?
How do I find every .au domain registered to my business?
Does the matching .au need its own change of registrant?
Can I change the registrant after the licence has expired?
Terms in this guide
- Change of registrant
- Putting a domain’s licence into a different person’s or business’s name.
- Registrant
- The person or organisation a domain is registered to.
- Licence
- What a .au registrant holds: the right to use the name for a set licence period, on auDA’s terms.
- Eligibility
- The rules on who may hold a name. For a .com.au, a commercial entity whose name or business matches the domain.
- auDA
- .au Domain Administration, the body that sets the rules for .au names.
- Registry
- The organisation that keeps the master list of names for one ending, such as .au or .com.
- Registrar
- A company accredited to add and change names in a registry.
- Reseller
- A business that sells domains through an accredited registrar and looks after its own customers.
- Auth code
- The password that proves you’re allowed to move a domain, or to authorise changes to it. For .au names, the domain password.
- WHOIS
- The public lookup that shows who holds a domain and which registrar manages it.
- ICANN
- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which sets the rules for .com and other generic endings.
Every term, in full, is in the glossary.
Sources
All read on 6 October 2026.
- .au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing (auDA, as amended by the auDA Board in June 2026; also as a web page): rules 2.4.4 (.com.au eligibility), 2.11 (staying eligible, deregistered and deceased registrants, not letting others use the licence), 2.12 (the domain password), 2.13 (changes of registrant and transfers, including who pays and the bar while a complaint or dispute is open), 2.16 (suspension and cancellation) and 2.18 (corrections and updates).
- .au Domain Administration Rules: Registrar (auDA, approved by the auDA Board in June 2026): rule 2.10.13 (no transfer to a new registrant while the registry contact details are wrong or incomplete), and rule 2.11 with Schedule A (the change-of-registrant procedure and its transfer form).
- Transfer your .au domain name (auDA): both parties eligible on the day, only full years carrying over (with its three-years-and-two-months example), the 28 days and their exception, and provider fees.
- Buying or selling a business? Don’t forget your domain name (auDA, 13 May 2021): a sale doesn’t move the domain, the car registration comparison, and the seller providing the domain password to approve the transfer.
- Registry search request (auDA): finding every licence issued using your details.
- How to submit a .au domain name licence complaint (auDA): where complaints go, and that an upheld complaint doesn’t transfer the name.
- Resolving .au domain name complaints and disputes (auDA, 22 April 2022): what the auDRP covers.
- Transfer a business name (ASIC): the separate business name transfer and its transfer number.
- Change your sole trader business to a company (business.gov.au): the ABN can’t move to the company, and the order of steps.
- Transfer Policy (ICANN, updated 21 February 2024): the 60-day lock after a change of registrant on generic endings, the opt-out, and the advice to move registrar before changing the registrant.
- Approved Resolutions, Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board, 7 June 2026 (ICANN): resolution 2026.06.07.04, adopting the Transfer Policy Review recommendations and directing their implementation, with no effective date.
- GNSO Council Recommendations Report to the ICANN Board on the Transfer Policy Review (GNSO, ICANN, 31 March 2025): Recommendation 26.4, removing the 60-day lock after a change of registrant.
- .com.au (Australia) (Amazon Web Services, Route 53 Developer Guide): one provider’s process, where both parties confirm by email link and the process restarts if that isn’t done within 14 days.
This guide is general information about auDA’s rules, not legal advice.
Keep reading
- The ABN check on .com.au renewals, if your ABN has changed or been cancelled.
- How to get your .com.au domain password, for moving provider or fixing a dead registrant inbox.
- .com.au vs .au vs .com: who can hold each one.
- Do you need the .au as well? If you’re selling, it moves separately.
- Domain renewal scams in Australia, if an unexpected letter or invoice turns up mid-sale.
- Transfers, locks and status codes: moving a domain to a different provider.