Switching Agencies: Handover Checklist and Right Order

Most botched agency switches go wrong with the first email: “Please accept this as formal notice.” From that moment the outgoing agency has little reason to go out of its way for you. Then it turns out the domain is registered in the agency’s name, the Google Ads account sits under its manager account and nobody knows the hosting password.

Reverse the order. Secure everything first, then give notice.

Step 1: Take inventory before anyone knows

List every digital asset involved in your site or product. For each one, answer three questions: who owns it, who has admin rights, and can you log in yourself today?

• Domains: who is the registered name holder, and which registrar?
• DNS: access and an export of every record
• Hosting account: in your name or the agency's?
• Email: MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records documented
• Source code: repository with full history
• CMS: an administrator account in your name
• Database: a current export
• Backups: where, how often, who has access
• Analytics and tag manager: you as administrator
• Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools: you as owner
• Ad accounts: Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn under your company
• Social media accounts and business managers
• Licences: themes, plugins, fonts, images, and whose name they are in
• Documentation: architecture, deployment, list of credentials
• Third-party contracts the agency signed on your behalf

Wherever you are only a user, ask for admin rights now, without mentioning any switch. It’s a routine request. It also quickly shows which accounts actually belong to the agency.

Step 2: Work out the notice period

The contract decides, and the label on the contract may not. Project contracts usually contain a termination clause that sets out what you owe for work done so far. Retainers for marketing or maintenance usually have a notice period of their own, sometimes tied to a minimum term.

Read three clauses before you send anything: the notice period, what happens to work in progress, and what the agency owes you on exit. Exit obligations covering code, credentials, documentation and a handover period are the ones that matter most.

If your agency is in Germany, statutory rules may apply where the contract is silent. Section 648 of the German Civil Code lets a client terminate a contract for a defined piece of work at any time before completion, with the agency keeping its fee minus what it saves; the law presumes the agency is owed 5% of the fee for the unfinished part. For ongoing service contracts without an agreed notice period, monthly-paid arrangements can be ended by the 15th of a month to the end of that month.

Step 3: Move the domains

The domain is the single most important asset. Lose it and you lose both the website and email.

For generic top-level domains such as .com, ICANN’s rules apply. According to ICANN’s guidance for domain name holders, the registrar must provide the auth code within five calendar days of your request. Watch out for one trap: changing the registrant’s name, organisation or email can trigger a 60-day lock on transfers to another registrar. ICANN’s advice is to complete the transfer first and update contact details afterwards. Registrars may also refuse a transfer within 60 days of the initial registration or a previous transfer. ICANN has been reviewing these transfer rules for some time, so check the current version before you move.

Country-code domains follow their own registry’s rules, but the principle is the same: whoever is recorded as the holder controls the domain. Check that before anything else.

Export every DNS record before the move. Missing MX or DKIM records after a transfer mean email stops arriving or lands in spam.

Step 4: Overlap, don’t cut over

1. Inventory and accessCheck every account, request missing admin rights, take backups and exports.
2. Choose the new agencyBrief, proposals, contract. Give the new agency read access to review what exists.
3. Give noticeIn writing, asking for handover against the checklist and a date to agree the state of work.
4. Handover windowTwo to four weeks with both agencies on board. The old one explains; the new one asks.
5. Move and closeTransfer domains, hosting and accounts. Remove old access, rotate passwords, confirm data deletion.

Handover length is a guide and depends on scope and documentation.

The handover window costs money, usually a few hours of the outgoing agency’s time. Budget for it. One hour of explanation from the person who built the system can save the new agency a full day of digging.

Ask explicitly for handover documentation: how deployments work, which scheduled jobs run, where configuration files with keys live, what quirks the system has. If none of that was ever written down, record a walkthrough session.

What switching costs

Changing agencies is never free, even with no penalty clause. The items are modest but belong in the budget before you give notice.

Handover sessions with the old agency (6 h × £110)

£660

Code and system review by the new agency (16 h × £110)

£1,760

Moving hosting, domains and accounts (6 h × £110)

£660

Total, excluding fees still owed under the old contract

£3,080

Hours and rate are assumptions. Badly documented software can take several times as long to review.

Don’t skimp on the review. Only after it does the new agency know what it is taking on and can quote reliably for further work. Any agency that names a fixed price for a takeover without looking at the code is guessing.

Data protection at the end

If the outgoing agency processed personal data for you, such as shop customers or contact form submissions, there should be a data processing agreement. Article 28(3) of the GDPR, which also applies in the UK as the UK GDPR, requires that agreement to oblige the processor to delete or return all personal data at the end of the service, at your choice. Ask for it in writing. Then rotate every password and remove the old agency’s accounts from every system, including the ones you won’t think of straight away, like the tag manager or SSH keys on the server.

When the old agency won’t cooperate

Most switches are uneventful, because the outgoing agency doesn’t want a dispute either. If it does turn awkward, put every request in writing with a deadline and check what the contract says about handing over code, credentials and documents. On code rights, read who owns the source code. Pay undisputed invoices on time; unpaid bills give an agency a reason to hold things back.

For next time, the best protection is a contract that settles handover before the project starts. The warning signs that it’s missing are collected in agency red flags.

Choosing the next agency

Every switch is a chance not to repeat the last selection’s mistakes. Give the new choice the same care, with a brief and reference calls, as described in how to choose an agency. If you want hosting and operations to sit with a partner that also watches security, look at providers such as OnlineBuilders’ cyber security services.

Next step: open the checklist above and try logging in to each of the 15 systems yourself today. Every one that fails is tomorrow’s task, before any notice goes out.

Questions people ask

Can my old agency refuse to transfer my domain?

If you are the registered name holder, the registrar has to give you the auth code; ICANN's guidance says within five calendar days of your request for generic domains. If the agency registered the domain in its own name, you need its cooperation, and your contract decides what it owes you.

How long does switching agencies take?

The technical handover of a website often takes only days. With the notice period, onboarding the new agency and an overlap phase, two to three months is realistic. Poorly documented software takes longer.

Does the old agency have to delete my customer data?

If it processed personal data on your behalf under EU or UK GDPR, the processing agreement must require it to delete or return the data at the end of the service, at your choice. Ask for deletion in writing and get confirmation.

Can I switch in the middle of a project?

That depends on your contract's termination clause. Under German law, if your agency is German, you can end a contract for a defined piece of work at any time but generally still owe the agreed fee minus the agency's savings. Switching mid-project only makes sense if carrying on will clearly cost more.