Buying a business? Check its online accounts before you complete

A customer who searches for the business finds its website, its Google listing and its reviews. If any of those stay with the seller, or with someone the seller can’t reach, you could lose them after you’ve paid. The website might stop working when a renewal goes unpaid, or email might keep going to the old owner.

Sale agreements often mention “goodwill” or “intellectual property” without naming the accounts themselves, so it’s worth checking each one rather than assuming it comes with the business.

Ask for a list of every online account the business uses, including:

• domain names, including old ones and any that forward to the main website
• website hosting, and who built and looks after the website
• email: the addresses in use, and the service they run on
• Google Business Profile, Tripadvisor and other listings
• Facebook, Instagram and any other social media
• booking, ordering, payment and newsletter systems
• subscriptions that renew automatically

For each one, ask:

• whose name it’s in: the business, the owner personally, or someone else
• which email address it’s registered to, and who can log in today
• where two-step verification codes are sent
• when it renews, what it costs and which card pays for it
• whether it can be transferred to you, or whether you’ll need to set up your own

A seller who can answer quickly usually has things in order. Vague answers are worth exploring before you go further.

• The domain name. Our free health check shows which company the domain is registered with, when it expires, and whether it’s locked against transfer. It also checks the website and email are set up properly.
• Reviews and listings. Look at the business on Google Maps and Tripadvisor. Reviews stay with a listing when it changes hands, so they’re part of what you’re buying.
• Social media. A Facebook Page’s transparency section shows when it was created and whether its name has changed. Check the pages are active and look like the business you’re buying.
• The email address. If the business uses a free address such as Gmail rather than its own domain, it may be the seller’s personal account, which is unlikely to move with the sale.

• the domain name is in a web designer’s account, or a former employee’s name
• the Facebook Page is run only from one person’s personal profile
• nobody knows the login for the website or the Google listing
• the domain expires within the next couple of months
• subscriptions are paid on the owner’s personal card

None of these need stop a sale, but each takes time to sort out, sometimes weeks. Ask for them to be fixed before completion, or agree with the seller how and when they will be.

Share the list with your solicitor. They can advise on naming the accounts in the sale agreement, so it’s clear what transfers to you, and on asking the seller to help with any handover that can’t be finished on the day.

Agree a plan for completion day: which accounts move, which logins change, and in what order. Our guides to domain names, Facebook and Instagram and Google Business Profile explain how each one moves.

• Change the passwords, recovery email addresses and phone numbers on every account you take over.
• Set up two-step verification on your own phone or authenticator app.
• Move renewals and subscriptions onto your own card.
• Open your own payment and card accounts. These usually can’t be transferred from the seller.
• Once everything works, remove the seller’s access, unless you’ve agreed they’ll help for a while longer.