Admininstrator is an external consultant. We need to regain administrative authourity.

Hi @Staffan Ramsby

Based on the information you provided, I understand that your company’s Microsoft 365 administrator account is currently controlled by an external consultant, and your organisation no longer has access to an internally controlled administrator account. As a result, your company needs to regain administrative control of its Microsoft 365 tenant.

I am also just a regular community user, so I cannot access your tenant, change administrator roles, or recover the account on your behalf. However, the appropriate recovery path depends on whether anyone within your company still has an account with administrative privileges.

-First, check whether any internal account still has administrative access

Ask authorised employees who already have Microsoft 365 work accounts to try signing in to the Microsoft 365 admin centre using their work or school accounts. If anyone can access the admin centre and open sections such as Users, Billing, Settings, or Help & support, their account may hold an administrative role. They may then be able to open a support request with Microsoft directly through the Microsoft 365 admin centre. If an internally controlled Global Administrator account still exists but the company no longer has its password or MFA method, try the account recovery options or alternative verification methods displayed on the sign-in page.

-If no one within the company has administrative access

If the external consultant controls the only Global Administrator account, or no internal administrator can sign in, this should be treated as a tenant access recovery case, rather than an ordinary password reset. In this situation, you will need to contact the Microsoft Data Protection team. You can try reaching Microsoft Support by telephone and ask the frontline support representative to create and escalate a tenant access recovery request to the Data Protection team.

When a call is made to support, the first step is to provide an automated voice response from AI. Be careful, you won't be able to speak to a support representative if you don't respond appropriately here. 

Contact Microsoft customer support | Microsoft Support 

Here's an example of a response that actually led to a support representative. Please refer to it. 

Q. Can you tell me if you are calling as a home user who uses a product or service at home or a business user who uses it in your business to provide the best assistance? 
A.I am a business user. 
Q. Thank you. Can you give me the details of your inquiry? 
A. Login technical support. 
Q. First of all, can you tell me which products you are inquiring about today? 
A. Microsoft 365 business Standard。 
Q. Please wait a moment, I understand Microsoft 365. Are you calling about a new case or an existing one? 
A. New. 
Q. To receive phone support, your phone number must be associated with your Microsoft 365 admin profile. To do this, go to aka.ms/m365profile. Again, it aka.ms/m365profile . This can take 48 hours. In the meantime, you can go to aka.ms/m365profile and file a case online. If you prefer, you can also text the link to the phone number you are calling. What do you think? 
A. The phone number is already linked to the link. 
Q. Can you tell me about the products in your inquiry? 
A. Microsoft 365 Business Standard. 
Q. Are you a Global Administrator? 
A. That's right. 
Q. I'm sorry. I didn't understand. Are you a global administrator for your domain? 
A. Yes, I am a global administrator for the domain. 
Q. If you have any inquiries, you can contact a Microsoft representative. Are you sure? 
A. Yes. Please. 
Q. Yes, I understand. Please wait a moment.

Please note that this team is always overwhelmed, so you might need to wait for them to call you, this should take 3-10 working days.

When contacting support, clearly explain your company’s situation and be prepared to complete Microsoft’s identity and tenant ownership verification process.

-If the consultant is still cooperating

The most practical first option would be to ask the consultant to:

1. Create a new internal account for an authorised company representative.
2. Assign the necessary administrator role to that account.
3. Assist with transferring operational control of the tenant back to the company.

The new administrator account should be a clearly identified account owned and controlled by the company, not a personal account belonging to the consultant.

After the internal administrator has successfully signed in, the company should review both the consultant’s direct access and any delegated access before removing accounts or roles. Do not remove the existing administrator account or permissions until you have confirmed that the new internal administrator can successfully sign in and manage the tenant. Otherwise, the tenant could be left without any usable administrative access.

After control has been restored, the company should maintain more than one internally controlled administrator account and keep at least one carefully protected emergency administrator account.

Could you confirm whether the consultant is still cooperating and whether anyone within the company can currently access the Microsoft 365 admin centre? Please do not share usernames, passwords, verification codes, or other sensitive information publicly.