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Someone else manages your Google listing

When it breaks 5 min read

What to do when another person or an old agency is verified on your Google listing, how requesting access works, and what happens if they never answer.

You try to change your hours and Google tells you the profile is managed by somebody else. It shows you a shadow of an email address, three letters and some dots, and you either recognize it or you do not. Either way, the listing with your name and your reviews on it answers to an account that is not yours.

This is common, it is not permanent, and there is a route through it that does not involve arguing with anybody.

Work out who has it before you do anything

Google shows a partial email address on the request screen. That masked address is usually enough to identify the person.

Think through everybody who ever touched your marketing. The web designer who built the old site. The company that ran ads for a summer. A supplier who set up your listing as a favor when you started. A member of staff who left. A family member who did it on their own account in 2019 and does not remember doing it.

Sometimes the answer is nobody at all: a listing that Google generated on its own, claimed by an account that has not been opened since.

Ask them first, plainly

If you can name them, a message beats a process. Most of the time the person is not holding your listing on purpose, they just never handed it over, and nobody ever asked.

Keep it short and unaccusing. You are the owner of the business, the Google listing is still under their account, could they transfer ownership to your email address. Give them the exact email you want it moved to. Most people do it that afternoon.

If the relationship ended badly, or they stopped answering long ago, skip this and go to Google.

Requesting access, and what actually happens

On the listing, Google offers a request access option to somebody who is signed in and not the owner. You fill out your details, say what your relationship to the business is, and submit it.

Google emails the current owner. They get a window, measured in a few days rather than weeks, to approve it, deny it, or ignore it. You wait. You cannot chase it, and there is no queue position to look at.

Use the email address you actually want to own the listing forever, not one you made up for this. Whatever you type here is the account you will be logging into for years.

If they say no

A denial is not the end. Google provides an appeal, and the appeal is where evidence does the work.

What helps is proof that the business is yours: registration paperwork, a license in your name, a lease or utility bill at the address, photographs of the signage and the van. What does not help is the story of the falling out, because Google is deciding who the business belongs to rather than who behaved better.

If nobody answers at all

This is the most likely outcome when the account belongs to somebody long gone, and it is the good outcome.

When the window passes with no response, you are usually given the chance to verify the business yourself and claim the listing. Verification may be a video call, a phone code, or a postcard, depending on the trade and the address. It is slow and it is straightforward, and at the end of it the listing is on your account.

What they cannot take with them

The reviews belong to the listing, not to the account managing it. An owner cannot delete individual reviews out of spite, and cannot take the review history with them when they go. They can change the phone number, the website link and the hours while they still have access, which is the real reason not to leave this sitting for another six months.

Once it is yours, make it hard to lose again

Sign in with an email that belongs to the business and that you control. Not a personal address you will lose access to, and never an address at a supplier's domain.

Then add a second owner: a partner, a spouse, somebody who would still be reachable if you were not. When you next hire somebody to look after your marketing, add them as a manager rather than making them the owner. A manager can post, reply and edit. Only an owner can lock you out, and there is no reason for anybody but you to be one.

The same question applies to your domain

If an old agency was verified on your Google listing, there is a fair chance the same account holds your domain name and your hosting.

That is worth checking this week rather than the week the site goes down, because who owns your website is exactly the same argument with a bigger bill attached. Two logins in your own name is a small piece of admin that keeps the whole thing yours.

A checklist for getting your listing back

Questions people ask

How long does a request for access take

Google gives the current owner a window of a few days to respond, then the decision comes to you. If they respond quickly it can be over in an afternoon.

The person who set it up has left the company

Then the request will very likely go unanswered, which is the path that ends with you verifying the business and taking the listing. Slow, but it works without needing them.

My agency says the listing belongs to them

The listing describes your business, carries your name, your address and reviews written about your work. An account holding it is not the same as owning it, and Google's appeal exists for this.

Can they delete my reviews if they are annoyed

No. Reviews sit with the listing and an owner cannot remove them one by one. They can change your phone number and website link, which is the reason to act rather than wait.

Should I just start a new listing instead

No. It leaves your reviews stranded on a profile you do not control, and two listings for one business creates a second problem on top of the first.

Do I need to pay anybody to do this for me

No. The request, the appeal and the verification are free and you can do all of them from your phone. Pay somebody only if the waiting and the paperwork is the thing that will stop you doing it at all.

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