How to Claim a Google Business Profile Someone Else Already Owns

A deli owner in Huntington decides to open on Sundays. She pulls up her own deli on Google to change the hours, signs in, and gets a message she has never seen: Someone else may manage this Business Profile. The someone turns out to be a marketing company she stopped paying three years ago. Can you claim a Google Business Profile that someone else already owns? Yes. The fast way is to have the current owner add you and hand over primary ownership. If they can’t or won’t, you send Google’s ownership request, the current owner gets three days to respond, and if they stay silent Google may let you claim the profile yourself.

We see this at the start of a lot of client work. As a Long Island SEO company, we often can’t fix a single thing on a new client’s listing until we sort out who holds it. Below is the whole process as Google’s own help pages describe it, quoted word for word. Where something is our opinion, we say so.

Can you take over a profile someone else verified?

You can ask, and Google has a form for it. Its help page opens with the exact situation: If you’re a business owner but a verified Business Profile for your business on Google Search or Maps is owned by someone else, you can request ownership from the current profile owner.

Check one thing before you ask anyone. Google’s same page warns that if you can’t find a claim button on your listing, you might already be the owner. It’s easy to set a profile up under an old Gmail address and forget about it. Try every Google Account you have ever used for the business. If you remember the account but not the password, Google’s page on ownership issues sends you to account recovery: For help recovering the username or password of the Google Account you used to claim and verify your Business Profile, visit the Accounts troubleshooter.

And don’t start a second profile to get around the first one. Google says You can have only one Business Profile for each business. One of the reasons it lists for marking a profile as a duplicate is that A verified profile already exists for the same business on Google. The penalty is in the same paragraph: If a profile is considered a duplicate, it won’t show on Google Search or Maps. The reviews you earned live on the old profile anyway. That’s the one you want.

Who is holding it, and what do you ask them for?

If you know who has the profile and you’re on speaking terms, skip the form. A person who already owns the profile can invite you directly, with no three-day wait. What you ask for depends on who it is.

1. Who holds itAsk forIf that fails
2. A past agencyTo add your Google Account as an owner, make you the primary owner, then remove their own access.Send Google's ownership request. If they refuse or want money, report them to Google (more on that below).
3. A former employeeThe same handover, from the personal Google Account they used to set it up. Ask kindly. They did you a favor at the time.Send the ownership request. An inbox nobody reads is the case where the claim option may appear after three days.
4. The previous owner of the businessPrimary ownership of the profile, as part of the sale. Reviews stay with the profile when it's transferred.Send the ownership request, and keep your bill of sale and lease handy for verification.
5. An account you don't recognizeNothing yet. Rule out your own old accounts first.Send the ownership request. It reaches an owner you can't name.

Our summary. Source: Google Business Profile Help, "Request ownership of a Business Profile," "Transfer primary ownership of a Business Profile" and "Business Profile third-party policies."

The row about buying a business comes straight from Google, which tells sellers: If you want to transfer ownership of your business, make sure you’re transferring primary ownership of your Business Profile to the new owner. This ensures all of your business info, like reviews, are maintained. If you’re buying a shop, in our view that sentence belongs on your closing checklist next to the keys and the phone number.

How do you send Google's ownership request?

For a business with a storefront, it’s a short form. Google’s steps:

1. Go to business.google.com/addSign in with the Google Account you want to own the profile from now on. In our view that should be an account the business controls, not a personal one you might lose.
2. Find your businessEnter the name and address, then choose your business from the list. This is where the Someone else may manage this Business Profile. message shows up.
3. Select Request AccessGoogle's condition is one line: If you're authorized to manage the business, you can request ownership from the current profile owner.
4. Fill out the form and submitThen watch your inbox. Google says After you request ownership, you’ll get an email confirmation. Keep that email. You'll need the link in it later.

Source: Google Business Profile Help, "Request ownership of a Business Profile."

There’s a catch for businesses with no shop. Google’s steps above are written for a storefront or hybrid business. A fence company in Massapequa that works only at customers’ homes goes a different way. Google’s instruction: To request ownership of a service-area business that provides services at the customer’s location and doesn’t have a physical shop or office, contact us. In the support form, Google says to describe the issue as Transfer ownership of listing.

How long does the current owner have to answer?

Three days. Google’s sentence: The current profile owner is then notified by email and has 3 days to respond. You don’t have to sit and guess, either: To check the status of your request, sign in to your Business Profile or select the link in your confirmation email.

Drawn from Google Business Profile Help, "Request ownership of a Business Profile" and "Resolve duplicate profiles & ownership issues."

If it’s approved. Google says You’ll get an approval email and can now manage the Business Profile. Google’s page doesn’t say which role an approved request gives you, so look yourself. The next section covers where.

If it’s denied. Google’s words: You’ll get a rejection email but you can still suggest an edit to the profile. You can also try to appeal the decision. Suggesting an edit won’t get you ownership, but it can fix wrong hours while you appeal. If the one who denied you is an agency you used to pay, skip ahead to the section on agencies, because Google has rules about that.

If nobody answers. In our view this is the likely ending when the profile sits in an inbox nobody reads. Google says If you don’t get a response after 3 days, you may have the option to claim the profile. You open your confirmation email, follow the link, and verify the business the way any new owner would. Google also notes you can sign in and look for a “Claim” or “Verify” button. One caution from Google that we’d rather you hear now: The option to claim a profile isn’t always available. Google doesn’t say when or why. If the option never shows up for you, we’d contact Business Profile support with proof of the business ready.

You're in. Why can't you remove them yet?

Because Google makes every new owner and manager wait a week. Its people page says: When you become a profile owner or manager, you have to wait 7 days before you can manage some profile features. The three locked actions are the ones you came for.

Left column quoted from Google Business Profile Help, "Manage your Business Profile owners & managers." Right column is our advice.

Use the week to fix the hours and photos, and to look at who else is on the profile. Everything about people lives in one place. Google’s path is: go to your Business Profile, then More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.

The roles work like this. There are owners and managers, and one of the owners is the primary owner. Google’s transfer page puts the difference in two short lines: Only owners can add or remove users. and Managers can remove themselves from a profile. So a manager seat doesn’t solve your problem. If the old agency approves your request but you find yourself listed as a manager, you still can’t remove them, and Google’s page says why you can’t even click their name: If you can’t select the user, it might mean you only have manager-level access.

Moving the primary owner seat. The current primary owner does this from People and access: select the person, select Edit next to Access, choose Primary owner, and save. Two rules from Google decide the order of things. First, A profile must have at least one other owner or manager to transfer primary owner access to. You have to be on the profile before they can hand it to you. Second, the primary owner can’t just walk away: If you’re the primary owner, you can’t remove yourself until after you transfer primary ownership to someone else. That second rule helps you. An agency that wants off your profile has to pass the seat to somebody, and it should be you.

One honest note. Google’s transfer page says Only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership. and, a few lines later, Only owners can change access roles for other owners and managers. This includes primary ownership of the Business Profile. We can’t tell you from those two sentences whether a regular owner can take the primary seat when the primary owner is gone. If you’re an owner and the primary account is abandoned, try the steps after your seven days, and if you get an error, take it to Google support.

Adding and removing people. To add someone, select Add in People and access, enter their email, pick Owner or Manager, and invite them. Google says Invited users can accept the invite and become users right away. To remove someone, select them and choose Remove person. They’ll know: When you remove a user, they get an email. They can’t change business info or do admin tasks, but their replies to reviews, posts, comments, and other actions stay on the Business Profile. So removing the old agency doesn’t erase the review replies they wrote for you.

What if a past agency won't let go?

Then they’re breaking Google’s rules for agencies, and you can say so in writing. Google’s third-party policies cover any company that manages profiles for clients, and the ownership rule has no wiggle room: all end customers must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile at all times.

The policy also sets a deadline for the day you leave: Within 7 business days of notice from an end customer, you must provide that client the ability to disassociate the Google Account used to manage their Business Profile from your services and regain exclusive control of it. And it names the worst versions of this outright. Among the practices Google prohibits: Threatens that clients will lose their profile if they don’t sign up with the agency. and Keeps a profile hostage in exchange for money.

So if the agency is stalling or quoting you a release fee, we’d do three things in this order:

1. Give notice in writing. Email them that you’re ending the service and want primary ownership of the profile moved to your Google Account. That starts Google’s 7 business days. Quote the policy line above.
2. Send the ownership request anyway. It costs nothing and it puts a date on record. If they deny it, you have the rejection email.
3. Report them to Google. Google’s page on working with third parties says If a third-party partner violates the Business Profile third-party policies, report them through the Business Profile third party violation complaint form. Don’t expect a reply: We might not respond personally when you report a third party, but we investigate your comments and take appropriate action if necessary.

If the agency claims you agreed to let them own it, the burden is on them. Google’s policy says If there’s a conflict between the third-party and the merchant, you must provide a written or digital proof of consent. And if they threaten to delete the listing, read them Google’s own line: Third parties can’t remove your business from Google or access your profile without your permission.

We’ll say plainly what we think of this. An agency that verifies your profile in its own account and keeps you off it is selling BSEO, and BSEO is you not knowing what you bought. You paid for a listing and got a rental. When we take on local SEO for a business in this spot, getting the profile back into the owner’s account is the first job, before categories or reviews or anything else. We can’t promise how Google will rule on a request. We can make sure the request, the notice and the report are done right.

One related check while you’re at it. Managing the profile’s Google Ads account links is on Google’s list of things owners and managers can do, so look at what the old company connected. Whoever handles your Google Ads management next should be working in an ads account that belongs to you.

How do you keep from losing it again?

Set the profile up so no single person leaving can take it with them. Most of this is Google’s own advice to agencies, turned around so the owner can check it.

• You hold the primary seatIn our view the primary owner should be a Google Account the business controls, tied to an email that outlasts any one employee.
• Name a second ownerGoogle says If you’re the only user associated with your profile, you can add more owners and managers. A partner or spouse as a second owner covers a lost password.
• Agencies get ManagerGoogle tells agencies: If a client already has a Business Profile, ask them to invite you as a manager, not as an owner. Hold yours to it.
• Nobody shares a passwordGoogle's tip: To access and manage Business Profiles without the need to share your password, each user needs their own Google Account.
• Use a real person's accountA shared mailing list won't work as an owner. Google says You can’t add Google Groups as managers or owners of profiles.
• Check the list when someone leavesOpen People and access the day an employee or vendor goes, and again every few months. That's our habit, not a Google rule.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help, "Manage your Business Profile owners & managers" and "Business Profile third-party policies."

Google gives agencies one more instruction that tells you what a good one looks like: After a profile has been created for a client, make the business owner the owner of the profile, and make yourself the manager of the profile. If the company you’re talking to won’t agree to that sentence, keep looking.

Why all this trouble over one listing? Because a profile you can’t edit goes stale. The hours are wrong on the Sunday you open, and reviews sit unanswered. In our view those same details are what AI answers have to work with when someone asks about a business like yours, which is where AI search visibility starts. It starts with the profile being yours.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help, "Request ownership of a Business Profile," "Manage your Business Profile owners & managers," "Transfer primary ownership of a Business Profile," "Resolve duplicate profiles & ownership issues," "Add or claim your Business Profile," "Business Profile third-party policies" and "Tips for working with third parties to manage your Business Profile." All checked in November 2026.

Once the profile is back in your hands, SEO that builds on it is what turns it into calls.