What happens to Cloudflare domains when someone dies
Cloudflare publishes its own process for a deceased person's account; a written request goes in through Cloudflare's support ticket system.
Cloudflare decides what happens to Cloudflare domains after a death case by case; its terms promise no transfer.
Cloudflare publishes its own process for a deceased person's account: Cloudflare Support deceased-account assistance (Account and Domain Management Best Practices); a written request goes in through Cloudflare's support ticket system. The request takes 6 documents.
How to request a transfer
- •Look up each domain in public WHOIS to see whether Cloudflare is the registrar or only the DNS and CDN provider.
- •Search the decedent's email for Cloudflare renewal, billing and expiration notices, which name the domains and the account email.
- •List the account-level services (Workers, Pages, R2, KV, D1, Zero Trust, account-owned API tokens) separately, because they do not move with a domain.
- •Registrant changes run through that mailbox.
- •Do not access the account with the decedent's password.
- •The death certificate
- •Letters testamentary or letters of administration, and the executor's government-issued photo ID
- •Proof the decedent held the domains: WHOIS records, renewal invoices, or a Cloudflare domain ownership certificate
- •The digital-assets (RUFADAA) authorization clause from the will or trust, if there is one
- •Days 1 to 30: grace period. The domain resolves and can be renewed.
- •Days 31 to 40: suspension page. The domain can still be renewed.
- •Days 41 to 70: redemption period. The domain can usually be restored for a restore fee.
- •Days 71 to 75: pending delete, then released for anyone to register.
- •Inter-account transfer: the source account submits the move and the gaining account accepts within five days. Only the WHOIS contact travels, and a 30-day transfer lock follows.
- •Transfer out: unlock the domain and give the authorization (EPP) code to the new registrar. ICANN blocks it within 60 days of registration or a registrant change.
- •Registrant change: the current registrant approves within seven days, and can skip the 60-day transfer lock on that approval page. Do the change and the transfer in sequence.
- •Registrant email: move it to an address the estate receives mail at and verify it. An unverified address puts the domain on hold with parked nameservers.
- •Export the DNS records before moving the zone, and reimport them on the new account.
- •Reissue the SSL/TLS certificates, which do not transfer to a new account.
- •Redeploy Workers from source control, and re-provision bindings, secrets and stored data from backups.
- •Keep renewals paid until the transfers complete, then ask support to cancel the remaining subscriptions and close the account.
Required Documents
- Death certificate
- Letters testamentary or letters of administration: Appointing the executor or personal representative.
- Government-issued photo ID for the executor
- Proof the decedent held the domains: WHOIS records, registrar or renewal invoices, or a Cloudflare domain ownership certificate generated before death.
- The RUFADAA digital-assets authorization clause from the will or trust: if the estate documents contain one
- The deceased's Cloudflare account email address and the domain names at issue: Cloudflare Support identifies the account by these, and will not answer questions about domains not associated with the account email used to contact support.
What Cloudflare's terms say at death
- Section 16
“You may not assign or transfer this Agreement or your rights hereunder, in whole or in part, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent.”1
What Cloudflare says happens8
- How requests are reviewed
Under its "Deceased account holder or registrant" heading, Cloudflare lists death among the ways access to an account is lost and says it may be able to assist when no access instructions are available; any access, registrant change or transfer is at its discretion.2
Cloudflare Support states it cannot make configuration or account changes on a customer's behalf.3
- Verifying the requester
Cloudflare's best-practices page observes that many companies require the person contacting support to have access to the email address on the account, and recommends an account email not tied to the domain name.2
Cloudflare Support will not troubleshoot or answer questions about domains not associated with the Cloudflare account email address used to contact support.3
The privacy Rights Request intake accepts an authorized agent only where the data subject confirms the authorization directly, the agent holds the data subject's power of attorney, or privacy law otherwise allows it, and verifies that a requestor is asking about their own information.4
- Domain renewal and expiry
Under Section 4.2 of the Domain Registration Agreement, the registrant's right and interest in a domain name ceases upon its expiration; renewal reminders go out roughly one month and one week before, and shortly after, the expiration date.5
Cloudflare enrolls domains in auto-renew by default and makes the first attempt roughly 30 days before expiration, with several retries, stating there is "no guarantee that the renewal will succeed"; renewals can fail on billing problems or registry downtime.6
For most top-level domains, days 1 to 30 after expiration are a grace period in which the domain resolves normally and can be renewed, with no further auto-renew attempts; days 31 to 40 show a parked suspension page and the domain can still be renewed.7
- Restoring a deleted account
Days 41 to 70 are a redemption period in which the domain no longer resolves and may be restored, usually for a restore fee on top of renewal; days 71 to 75 are pending delete, after which the domain is released. The registry sets the exact timeline.7
.uk domains cannot use the standard redemption process but can be renewed up to 90 days after expiration with no restore fee.7
- Deletion and data retention
Only Super Admins and Administrators with Read/Write access can initiate deleting a registration; the delete token is emailed only to Super Admins and is valid for 30 minutes.7
After a zone moves, the old zone shows "Moved Away", then "Deleted" after 7 days, and is permanently removed 7 days after that.8
- What carries over to a new account
In an inter-account move only the WHOIS contact information travels with the registration; Cloudflare states "No other configuration will be moved", and the configuration and settings in the source account are lost.9
Moving the zone is a separate, manual process: export DNS records, remove DNSSEC, cancel add-ons and subscriptions, add the domain to the new account, update nameservers and reimport DNS. Skipping the export can leave proxied records that produce a 1000-class error.8
Certificates associated with the previous account "will not be transferred to your new account" and must be reissued; ACM certificates deploy once the domain is Active, and custom certificates are deleted from the old zone and uploaded to the new one.8
Neither the registration move nor the transfer out carries the surrounding configuration: DNS records, SSL certificates, subscriptions and every account-level service stay behind and must be rebuilt.2
- Subscriptions and billing
Domain auto-renewals and Cloudflare subscriptions keep billing the card on file; if that card is closed before the registrations move, the renewals fail and the expiration lifecycle begins.1
- Balances, payouts and refunds
Cloudflare does not refund a deleted domain registration.1
Not in Cloudflare's published guidance10
- How long a request takes
- A complete list of the documents to send
- Whether a certified death certificate is required
- A mailing address for a written request
- A form for estate requests
- Disclosure of account content
- An estates team, portal or email
- A hold on lapse while an estate is opened
- Moving Workers, Pages, R2, KV, D1 or Zero Trust to another account
- Issuing an ownership certificate to someone other than the holder
Sources9
- 1.Self-Serve Subscription Agreement, last updated September 12, 2025
- 2.Account and Domain Management Best Practices
- 3.Contacting Cloudflare Support
- 4.Privacy Policy, effective November 4, 2025
- 5.Domain Registration Agreement, effective August 20, 2026
- 6.Renew domains
- 7.Registrar FAQ
- 8.Move a domain between Cloudflare accounts
- 9.Registrar inter-account transfer
A written request to Cloudflare can ask it to transfer the registration to a new registrant, preserve the account while the estate is opened, provide purchase and transaction records for the estate inventory and close the account.
Digital Assets Recovery Letter for Cloudflare drafts that request from the estate's details.
Sources
Data sourced from Cloudflare primary sources (15 pages reviewed). How we research.
Cloudflare estate claims
Cloudflare Data Protection Officer (Rights Requests)
Mailing address
Website
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Forms for Settling an Estate
Free forms for settling an estate: the probate petition, small estate affidavit, notice to creditors, inventory, and closing forms.
Affidavit of Death
Put a joint owner's or a transfer on death deed owner's death on the land records with the affidavit your state's statute names, laid out for recording.
IRS Form 56
Notify the IRS that you are the fiduciary of an estate, a trust or a person, or end a notice filed before, on the official form.
Digital Assets Recovery Letter
Prepare a letter requesting a deceased person's online accounts, points, and balances from the program that holds them.
Petition for Probate and Letters
Open probate and ask the court to appoint you and issue Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
Notice to Creditors
Notify estate creditors and start the claim period — the published notice plus mailed copies for known creditors.
Renunciation of Executor
Decline an appointment as executor named in a will — the writing filed with the court before anyone is appointed.
Tools for Settling an Estate
Free tools for settling an estate: whether probate is needed, executor and trustee pay, creditor deadlines, and inheritance taxes.
How Many Death Certificates Do I Need?
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See what your state records when a joint tenant with right of survivorship dies: an affidavit, the death certificate or a new deed.
Do I Have to File Tax Returns for Someone Who Died?
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How Do I Settle an Estate?
Personalized plan for settling an estate after someone passes away.
What Do I Do When Someone Dies?
A step-by-step checklist for the days, weeks, and months after a death, with state rules noted where they apply.
