So you've lost access to your business Facebook page. It happens! 

A page that hasn’t had any activity, but is still findable to your customers, can create a really confusing impression of your business. Are you even still open? Under new management? Did you let the page go dormant to avoid dealing with bad reviews? Just forgetting the lost page and starting a new one isn’t much of a solution either; in that situation you’ll end up with a duplicate page confusing your audience and drawing a percentage of them away from all your hard work on the new page.

Losing control of a business page is like locking yourself out of the house - before we go on and call a locksmith, check your pockets one last time for the key - attempt the password recovery options here - try calling that ex staff member, try remembering the name of that marketing company you hired years ago - still nothing? Ok, let’s do an Admin Dispute.

What is an Admin Dispute? 

An “Admin Dispute” is essentially going to Facebook, with a few documents at hand, to say “This is my business page, but I’ve lost control, here’s the proof, could you let me back in please?”

Before we start that conversation with a support agent, let’s take care of the basics and get some proof of ownership together.

In order to start an admin dispute process, you’ll need to be signed into your personal Facebook page. If you don’t have one, then it’s time to make one. When you create one, it’s really important that the account represents the real you. Fake pages can be a liability because they go against Facebook policies. As part of this process you’ll also be providing photo identification, so an account named MinionsMom442 isn’t going to help much!

If you need a little help setting up a personal account, here’s a great guide from Facebook.

So now you’ve got your personal page, let’s get those documents together.

Documents you need for an Admin Dispute

1. Utility Bills

Proof of access to the physical address is one of the things Meta support will be asking for, usually this takes the form of utility bills, either the PDFs your providers might email you, or good quality pictures of the bills that arrive by post.

The best of these examples will show the physical address of the business, along with your name (or even better, the name of the business itself).

2. Photo ID

You’ve done this before - a good quality picture of your passport will do the trick, or whatever other official identification you might have. The important thing here is to make sure it matches the personal facebook page you’re going to be applying from. No use having the business owner’s ID if it’s a staff member or friend who’s applying for control.

3. Proof Of Spend

If you haven’t spent any money on Facebook advertising (boosting posts etc) in the past then you can skip this step. If you have spent money with them however, they’ll be looking for copies of your last two invoices (these are normally emailed to you right after the spend). 
Don’t have those? That’s fine, you can usually prove you’re the spender by verifying the credit/debit card information used for the advertising, so have your card on hand. 

4. A Signed Letter

Last up is a letter, printed and signed by yourself, that states the situation in clear and simple terms. This can be the toughest part as most people just don’t know what to write or how to phrase it so facebook will be most likely to accept. Below is an example of the kind of letter that we’ve seen work in the past, but remember, this is JUST AN EXAMPLE, it’s important you change any details to match your situation.

Hi Meta Support,

My name is [Full Name], I’m [Job Title/Role] at [Business], and our address is [Company Address].

I’m contacting you on behalf of [Store Name], the rightful owners of the Facebook page; [Store Page Name & Page URL]

We have lost full access to this page as it is in the control of staff no longer with the business and who have not responded to our attempts at contact.
What we would like is for the page to be added to a business manager in my name so that we can continue to operate and advertise as needed.

Please see the attached documentation, which includes:

A signed copy of this statement
A scan of my passport  
Two utility bills from the business address
The latest invoices we’ve received from advertising on the page.

For context on the above point, the last four digits of the credit card used for this advertising are [1234]

____________________________

Signed [John Smith]

Keep hold of the digital copy too, as it’s always handy to include it for the sake of readability.

Processes are always subject to change, so watch out for what the support agent asks specifically but, in the past, we’ve seen them request all of the info formatted into one PDF document. If that’s not something you’re familiar with don’t worry, it’s almost as easy as saving a word document, check out this handy guide. 

Let’s Start an Admin Dispute!

To contact Meta support, click this link - https://www.facebook.com/business/help/support

1. When asked to "Select Asset" you may be seeing multiple options, it's easiest to just select the one that has your own name (although we'll end up at the same location anyway).
   

2. You'll then be asked to specify the issue you’re contacting Meta support about., The options Facebook list change over time, and can be intimidating if you've not dealt in depth with advertising before - but it works fine to just select something general like "I need help with my ad account settings".
   

3. That should leave you at the final step, which is actually sending a message to support. It will look like the below screenshot. I've included an example of the message you might send them to open the conversation and explain the problem.

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The support agent may then ask one or two small questions to clarify the situation, before requesting you get together all the information we spoke about above. You won’t be able to upload your shiny new PDF into the chat, but will be given an email address you can send it to.

Once everything has been submitted, you'll usually hear back within 5 business days as to whether your request has been accepted, or if more information is needed.

And then that’s it, if you’ve done everything correctly you’ll be back in control of your business page.
If your page has been sitting without updates for a while, check out our guide on ‘How to make your Digital Storefront Match your In-Store Experience.’‍

We hope this has helped if you are in a sticky situation and lost control of your Facebook Business Page.  If you need any further help or advice, please feel free to get in touch.‍

Chat soon,

SL