What if someone else controls my business’s Google profile?

Ascent Vision · Published October 21, 2026

If someone else owns your verified Google Business Profile, you can ask Google to send an ownership request to the current owner, who has 3 days to respond. If they approve, you can manage the profile. If they refuse, you can appeal. If they do not answer, you may be offered the option to claim it, though Google says that option is not always available.

First, check whether you still have access

Google says a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, and that only owners can add or remove other users. If you are an owner, you may not need to ask anyone: Google says owners can remove other owners and managers under People and access in the profile’s settings. Google also notes that if you cannot find a claim button for your profile, you might already be the owner.

If someone else holds the only owner login

If the profile has not been verified, Google says you can claim and verify it yourself. If someone else is the verified owner, Google says you can request ownership if you are authorized to manage the business. If you travel to customers and have no shop or office, Google’s page sends you to its contact option instead: type Transfer ownership of listing in the help field and choose it as the issue description. For a storefront or hybrid business, Google’s steps are:

Go to business.google.com/add and enter your business’s name and address.
Choose your business from the list. Google then shows a message that someone else may manage the profile.
Select Request Access, fill out the form and submit it.

What happens after you ask

Google emails you a confirmation and emails the current owner, who has 3 days to respond. There are three outcomes:

Approved: you get an approval email and can manage the profile.
Denied: you get a rejection email. You can still suggest an edit to the profile, and you can try to appeal.
No response after 3 days: you may have the option to claim the profile by following the link in your confirmation email and verifying your business. Google says that option is not always available.

When a former agency holds it

Google’s ownership guidelines call anyone who manages a profile they do not own, such as a third-party SEO or SEM company, an authorized representative. Such a representative must never claim a profile without the owner’s express consent, and must always “transfer Business Profile ownership to the business owner immediately upon request”.

A sensible first step is a written request to hand the profile over, with the date you sent it. If the agency will not, Google has a form for reporting a third party that breaks its policies, such as one that claimed a profile without consent. Google says to try to resolve the problem with the third party first. The form asks where you saw the violation, a short summary, your contact details and your business’s name, address and phone number, with room for the third party’s company name. Google says it does not step into breach-of-contract disputes between a business and an agency.

Once you have it back

Google says a new owner has to wait 7 days before removing other owners or managers, deleting the profile or transferring primary ownership, so expect a short wait before you can remove old access. Google’s guidelines tell agencies to encourage the owner, whenever possible, to own the profile and add them as managers; Google also says each user needs their own Google Account. The related answer on how to switch marketing agencies lists the other accounts to secure.

Sources

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