RULE: Always list the business (not the agency) as the domain Registrant. Step 1 of every engagement.

Rule: For every Candid client engagement, the first action in onboarding is a WHOIS lookup of the client's primary domain. If the Registrant is not the business or the business owner, fixing that is task #1 — before any design, development, or content work.

For new domains: Candid never registers a domain in Candid's own name on behalf of a client. The client creates their own registrar account (Cloudflare Registrar, Porkbun, or similar — not Squarespace) and adds Candid as a delegate user where useful. The business is always the Registrant.

Why: ICANN treats the listed Registrant as the legal owner (see ICANN: listed Registrant is the legal owner of a domain — admin/technical contact is NOT ownership). Without Registrant status the business has no transfer authority, no leverage, and no path to recovery if Candid goes under or the relationship ends. The "agency-as-Registrant" hostage pattern (see Agency-as-Registrant "domain hostage" pattern — practitioner-documented but rarely litigated) is the single most common ownership failure in SMB web work.

How to apply:

• WHOIS lookup at engagement kickoff. Document the result in the project handoff.
• If the current Registrant is a prior agency: transfer to business control before any other work begins. Budget 1-2 weeks for the transfer.
• New domains: client creates the registrar account; Candid is delegate only.
• This rule is non-negotiable. There is no engagement where Candid is the Registrant of a client's domain.