minotaur

We make good money from hosting our clients websites, and it's a steady income that really helps for those quiet months. You don't tend to run into many problems if your contracts are solid. It's not for everybody, but I don't think he should stop hosting for his clients based on this one bad experience that can be learned from.

Wjy would you host a client in the first place? You are not a hosting compmany, but a webdesigner/developer
 
Find a good hosting for your client, register it on his name, payment with his card, future responsibility is his.
 
That is what I have been doing in the past 10 years and never had any issues of hosting/domain payments.
 
Of course all this must be explained properly to the client.

Having something in your contract will give you more leverage when something like this happens. I'd strongly advise going down that route in the future, and also having a clause that prevents a client from hosting elsewhere.
 
It can be extremely problematic, especially if the website got hacked, or the host didn't support the required environment to host the site on. You can also be blamed for downtime, site speed and all sorts, even though it's not directly related to you.

Possible but it's risky if you just want shot ... could end up another bill not paid yet wasted your time writing the invoice

Since he is wanting a new host, let him be in charge of that decision. He chooses the host, opens an account in his name, pays for it with his account info, sends you access to the hosting account and ftp info, you move it, send him an invoice (under the assumption he won't pay it but at least his obligation to you outside of moving the site is over), and be done with it. You will be the bigger person and end things positively. When it is done, warn him you will no longer have control over his hosting and to contact them directly with any issues.

you can also be a bit sneaky and charge him a fee for the trouble of setting it up on another host

Moving the site shouldn't be an issue.
 
Have the site still live on your hosting and add the site files to the new one. the DNS will need to be changed of the domain name and while this is being sorted the site will still be available.
 
Once it has been moved and you are sure that it is now on the new hosting then you can pull the files from your hosting.
 
Like Inlinedivblock says give the client some notice of the actions you are going to take so that he is still in the loop and explain that once the site is on his hosting it is being removed from yours.

I wouldn't shut it down immediately, I would give him fair warning, 4 weeks to find a hosting providor of his choice, that way you have given him an opportunity to move over to another host!

In order to move the website he needs to give permission otherwise since he owns it you would in effect be stealing it from him. Do what I said above, shut it down if he has not paid up, he will soon be on the end of the phone, if you cannot reach an agreement from there then the only option would be courts.

If he does not pay for hosting, cut it off, if he wants it moved, he pays for your time to do it.
 
You are well within your rights to stick to the original contract no matter how reliant he is on it, if you dont pay your utility bills, they cut you off, if he then owes you money take him to court and site breach of contract. simples..

Migrating the site should be simple enough, but to truly be shot of him he will need to be the account holder of the new hosting and thus will have to know.
 
I think the best course would be to say you're sorry he 'feels' unhappy with things and would he like to host somewhere 'cheaper'. If he's still grumbling about the actual site it's not really relevant as I assume he signed off / paid the final invoice on completion.
 
Essentially what if I paid him for a car with maintenance contract and then saw one cheaper with less miles would he refund me?