Domain expired

[groucho]

I had an email from nominet today saying that my domain has expired and to contact my registrar. A couple of questions. Is it normal for a registrar to let a domain expire?
I am the registrant and I can't remember how I lost control of this domain, ie, to be able to renew it.

Is there anything underhand going on?

[Brother D]

groucho said:

I had an email from nominet today saying that my domain has expired and to contact my registrar. A couple of questions. Is it normal for a registrar to let a domain expire?
I am the registrant and I can't remember how I lost control of this domain, ie, to be able to renew it.

Is there anything underhand going on?

Whats the domain? You can pull the details doing a whois to see who it is registered to etc. - I'd check you are not just being scammed by the "your domain is about to expire - just renew with us for $300 a year"

Are you the registrant? You can still retain it as registrant(i.e you) = owner.

You also get an amount of time after it has expired to restore it - I'd find out what domain registra (godaddy.com register1.net etc) you used and see what they charge to renew it (probably more now it has expired, but it shouldn't be punitive).

[rpguk]

groucho said:

I had an email from nominet today saying that my domain has expired and to contact my registrar. A couple of questions. Is it normal for a registrar to let a domain expire?
I am the registrant and I can't remember how I lost control of this domain, ie, to be able to renew it.

Is there anything underhand going on?

It's not usual for a registrar to let a name expire. They make their money in renewals. Usually you'll get a couple of emails warning you it's about to expire. It may be that these went to a spam folder or were otherwise filed away.

It could quite possibly be a scam. I get emails quite often asking me to renew which are scams. As the registrant details are public it's easy to knock up a convincing fake email (used to get posted invoices too!)

Pop your domain name into the box here - http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/about-do... - and check the Registration status and Expiry date. If it's genuinely past expiry contact the people listed under Registered through

[groucho]

I have been on the whois site and it has expired today. I am the registrant. I feel a little bit uncomfortable not having control of it. The registrar is HEARTINTERNET. I called them and they told me the registrar is Unitel Direct. This is correct.


Not keen to give domain name online as my address is in the info.

Edited by groucho on Monday 2nd March 18:59

[colin79666]

When domains expire they usually go into a period where the site goes down but you can still re-register it. If you don't then it will become available again to the public after a period (often 3 months ish).
Get onto Heart Internet and renew it if you want to keep it. Don't be surprised if costs more than the usual renewal fee as you are a captive market once it has expired.

Once renewed you can choose to move it to another registrar. I moved my domain to Hover a few years ago when I fell out with 123-reg. Hover include WHOIS Privacy as standard so you can hide your details from people poking around WHOIS records. If you are an individual rather than a company you can opt out for free with .uk domains anyway. Only issue I have with Hover is my bank always blocks my credit card when I use it for payment there as their anti-fraud thing doesn't seem to get the message.

[groucho]

Been speaking with HeartInternet. Unitel Direct who is a reseller has my domain on their site. I have lost control of it. I'm going to tell them to transfer it back to me. I am the owner.

This doesn't seem right. What stops them not renewing and then buying it themselves, or charging £500 for renewal? I do not trust them.


The website is still up though.

Edited by groucho on Monday 2nd March 20:02

Edited by groucho on Monday 2nd March 20:06

[colin79666]

groucho said:

I am the owner.

You aren't unless you have paid for the renewal. With domains you are effectively renting the exclusive use of the domain. Once payment stops the landlord takes it back. Who did you actually buy the domain from? Unitel describes themselves as a Heart reseller in their t&cs.

[TonyRPH]

It's not uncommon to get email reminders about domain expiry*, and many people blindly click through and renew the domain, which at the same time transfers it to the company who sent the email.

Then the domain is allowed to expire (no reminders are sent) and once the grace period has passed, the company concerned re-register said domain effectively taking ownership of it.

Unless you can provide proof (in the form of branding or similar in the case of a business) you are likely to have lost it.

• reminders are almost always sent a month or two before expiry.

[groucho]

colin79666 said:

You aren't unless you have paid for the renewal. With domains you are effectively renting the exclusive use of the domain. Once payment stops the landlord takes it back. Who did you actually buy the domain from? Unitel describes themselves as a Heart reseller in their t&cs.

I bought the domain back in 2008 from easily.co.uk when I buit my website myself. There is no way I can personally pay for renewal at the moment as Unitel has control on Heart. Heart said if they do not transfer it over, then they will transfer it to me themselves.

So, people could end up losing domain names in these scenarios?

[groucho]

TonyRPH said:

Unless you can provide proof (in the form of branding or similar in the case of a business) you are likely to have lost it.

• reminders are almost always sent a month or two before expiry.

I can do this. My name and address, company name are on Whois.
I did not get any reminders. Nominet sent me an email today. This sounds unscrupulous.

[Martin4x4]

You can manage your domain directly with nominet.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/manage-y...

[skeggysteve]

groucho said:

I bought the domain back in 2008 from easily.co.uk ...

I had thw same named .co.uk and .com domain that I got from them years ago. They didn't tell me that the .com needed renewing and when it did they wanted silly money from me to renew.
Years later I still get emails from re-sellers offering to sell me the .com for silly money.

[rpguk]

Martin4x4 said:

You can manage your domain directly with nominet.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/manage-y...

This. If you're listed as the registrant and you got an email directly from nominet then you have enough to take control of the name again. I think it'll cost you a tenner or so to switch the IPS tag to another provider (first instigate a transfer).

That it's already expired may complicate things a little. Give Nominet a call on 01865 332244 and they'll advise you on how best to proceed. You're lucky it's a .uk as nominet are an absolute pleasure to deal with compared to just about every other registry.

When you're done make sure you've got all your other domains under your control.

[groucho]

rpguk said:

This. If you're listed as the registrant and you got an email directly from nominet then you have enough to take control of the name again. I think it'll cost you a tenner or so to switch the IPS tag to another provider (first instigate a transfer).

That it's already expired may complicate things a little. Give Nominet a call on 01865 332244 and they'll advise you on how best to proceed. You're lucky it's a .uk as nominet are an absolute pleasure to deal with compared to just about every other registry.

When you're done make sure you've got all your other domains under your control.

I have transferred it like said above. All I have to do is call them to change nameservers, unless I can do this? Cheers.

[buggalugs]

You have to have some name servers to use though, you won't be able to use heart/unicom's as you're not their customer any more. Best bet is to get a heart or 123-reg account and use theirs, unless your website hosting provider will provide name servers too.

ps it's normal for a third party to manage the domain for you as most people don't need the hassle and it costs next to nothing, though they did fk up letting it expire.

[Brother D]

groucho said:

rpguk said:

This. If you're listed as the registrant and you got an email directly from nominet then you have enough to take control of the name again. I think it'll cost you a tenner or so to switch the IPS tag to another provider (first instigate a transfer).

That it's already expired may complicate things a little. Give Nominet a call on 01865 332244 and they'll advise you on how best to proceed. You're lucky it's a .uk as nominet are an absolute pleasure to deal with compared to just about every other registry.

When you're done make sure you've got all your other domains under your control.

I have transferred it like said above. All I have to do is call them to change nameservers, unless I can do this? Cheers.

I might get flamed - but register1.net are fairly ok to deal with and have a very simple site for holding/managing the domain.
Although most people have defected to TSOhosts for hosting including me, I left my domain at register1. Drop them a note or call them both have been super helpful over the phone and can guide you thru the process.