Registrant verification

Shortcut to this page: hover.help/rv

What is Registrant Verification?
What triggers Registrant Verification?
How do I complete the verification?
What can I do if I do not receive the verification email?
What happens if you do not verify within 15 days?
What if I no longer have access to the email address?
Is there a way for Hover Support to manually verify a Registrant?
What can I do if I cannot access my Hover account and need to change the email?

What is Registrant Verification?

As of January 1st, 2014, ICANN (the organization that oversees generic domain names) requires all Registrars to verify the combination of the domain Owner's First Name, Last Name and email address. As part of this process, you as the registrant owner will be required to verify the contact information that you used to register generic top-level domains (gTLD).

In addition, any gTLD domain (new registration or transferring into Hover) which has the first name, last name or email address of the Registrant Owner changed, will have to be verified again.

Note: This new policy applies to all registrars, not just Hover. We’re required to follow the procedure in order to maintain our ICANN accreditation that allows us to sell domain names.

What triggers Registrant Verification?

Purchasing a gTLD domain (if you have not already verified your combination of First Name, Last Name and email address with Hover).
When a change is made to any, or all 3, of the Registrant Owner conect information: First Name, Last Name and/or email address.
If a renewal reminder or Whois Data Reminder Policy email bounces. This indicates the email is no longer valid and will require update.

Shortly after you register a domain or complete transfer into Hover, you will receive an email with a special link that you'll need to click in order to verify that the name and email address you provided is valid. You have 15 days in which to respond. It's very important that you pay attention to this message, because failure to verify the email address associated with the domain within 15 days will result in that domain being suspended. This means that the domain's website and email will stop working until you verify the address.

If you do not reply to this email immediately, you will receive the email message again. The message is resent several times to make sure that you receive and respond to it. You only need to respond to the message once. If you purchase additional domain names using the same first name, last name, and email address, you will not have to validate this information again.

How do I complete the verification?

The email that you will receive looks similar to this:

When you click the link in the email, you will be taken to the verification page, which look similar to the picture below. Check that the information is correct, and then click Verify Information.

What can I do if I do not receive the verification email?

If this happens, one of a few things may have occurred:

The Registrant Owner email address was entered incorrectly (ie. with typos). --> You'll need to log into the Hover account and update to correct spelling.
An old/alternate/backup email address was entered in the Registrant Owner email address field. --> You'll want to make sure you are logged into the correct email account to receive the message.
The email went into the spam folder. --> Make sure to check the spam or junk folder in your account for an email from help@hover.com.
The email was lost/deleted. --> You can log into the Hover account and resend the email, by clicking the "resend email" link in the Owner section on the Domain Details tab

How do I know if the verification was successful or still needs verification?

You can check the Domains page to see if the Status is "Active" or "Verifying." A domain with a status of "Active" means the verification was successful.

What happens if you do not verify within 15 days?

If the registrant contact info is not verified within 15 days, the domain and DNS will be suspended, meaning your site, email, forwarding and any other services linked to the domain will go offline at the end of day 15. You will not lose your domain.

The only way to get the domain unsuspended and your website back up is to complete the verification by clicking the link in the email they received or updating the Owner record information to have a new email sent. Once the verification is finished, the domain will be back up almost instantaneously.

What if I no longer have access to the email address?

If you no longer have access to the email address that is entered on the Owner contact info, and thus never got the email asking to verify, then you must change the email address to one you do have access to, and complete the verification process.

To change the email address:

Sign in to your Hover control panel using your chosen method of 2FA.

Trouble signing in? Please see: How To: Sign in to your Hover Account in 2 easy steps
If you have more than one domain, chose the domain to be verified from the list of Your Domains.
On the domain Overview page, scroll down to the Registration Records, choose Owner, and then click Edit.
You may need to scroll down, but here you can change the email address to one you can access. You can also opt out of the 60 day ICANN lock. If applied, this lock will prevent you from being able to transfer the domain for 60 days.

Once you've entered your new settings, click Save Changes.

The change of the email address will alert Hover that the new email address needs to be verified and a new link will be emailed to that address.

Making a second change to the registrant info (ie. changing the spelling of your first name and then changing your email address two days later) will not reset the 15 day verification time limit. You will only need to complete the verification once, for the most recent set of registrant contact info currently on the domain.

Is there a way for Hover Support to manually verify a Registrant?

No, there is not. The registrant must complete the process by clicking the link in the email. We are only able to assist with helping you update the registration information.

What can I do if I cannot access my Hover account and need to change the email?

If you are no longer able to access your Hover account with your username and password OR the email address on file is based off the suspended domain, you can contact us at help@hover or 1-866-731-6556. We can assist with the account login and the necessary changes to the Owner contact email so the verification link can be resent.