Getting control of domain back

Hopefully someone can give me some advice on this.

A friend has a business and his daughter registered a .co.uk domain accordingly with a web hosting provider. For one reason or another they stopped making payments (they're just not IT people and it dropped off the radar) and so now if I go to the said domain, I get a "site suspended" message.

Anyway we all wanted to get it up and running so we called the web hosts and offered to start making payments again etc but because we had forgotten the username and password they refused to be of any use whatsoever. Sheer laziness.

Now it would seem that the the registrant information for the domain name has changed to someone else and it has been renewed but it all still seems to be under control by the same web hoster - which is quite odd. So now, potentially an old employee who had access to the details logged onto the website and renewed it and changed the details to them.

Ultimately the domain and site was registered in the business name and at the business address, and now this has changed. If the web host had been more cooperative then the rightful owner of the web hosting and domain name would have just renewed it, but now the situation has got even more complicated. Either way, there is nothing particularly malicious going on, we can just register a new domain name for what difference it makes, it is just a little bit annoying.

Is there anything that can be done easily? I suppose what I am saying is have the web hosts tripped up in any way by not giving us the opportunity to get back onto their hosting platform which could be used as leverage?

Edited by Pipexer (Sun 19-Jun-16 23:16:25)

Had the domain registration itself expired (that is separate from any payment for hosting)? If it had expired then how long ago? If it has been a while then the domain would have been released back into the pool for anyone to buy. Have you confirmed with Nominet what the status of the domain is?

You may want to have a look at Nominet's domain dispute resolution service;

http://www.nominet.uk/domains/resolving-uk-domain-di...

Note also;

In reference to registrars.nominet.uk/registration-and-domain-management/registrar-...:

B.1.13. issue an expiry notice to Your Customer no more than 30 days prior to expiry of the domain. You must always allow a Registrant to renew a domain name (and maintain the registration in their own name) at any point up to the point at which we would otherwise have cancelled and deleted that domain name, provided that such renewal does not breach any of the terms of this Agreement or of the Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registration. You may specify a reasonable deadline in advance of the cancellation date by which Your Customer must have sent you their renewal request, only where you require such time to process a renewal request before the cancellation date

In reference to registrars.nominet.uk/namespace/uk/registration-and-domain-manageme...:

If you do not submit a renewal request

If you have not submitted a renewal request when the expiry date for a domain name is reached, we will commence our renewal reminder email programme for registrants:

On expiry: We will notify the registrant 1 day after the date of expiry if we have not yet received a renewal request. The reminder will include the name and public URL of the registrar associated with the domain name and a recommendation that they contact their registrar to arrange renewal.

Suspension warning: Sent 23 days after the expiry date to warn the registrant that the domain name will be suspended in 7 days. The email explains the consequences of suspension and advises them to contact their registrar to arrange renewal.

Suspension notice: Sent 30 days after the expiry date to advise the registrant that the domain name has been suspended and that it is still not too late to renew through their registrar. We also warn of the consequences of the domain name being cancelled.

Cancellation warning: Sent 83 days after the expiry date. This email warns the registrant that the domain name will be cancelled in 7 days. The email explains that cancelled domain names are then available for anyone else to register and that it is still possible to renew the domain name, even at this late stage.

So, basically, the web hosting company was required by Nominet terms and conditions to renew for the existing registrant for up to ninety days after the domain name expired.

Thanks Sarah - I had glanced on their website but the exact bits you quote are very useful. Think I'll get in touch with them again. At the very least they can forward on a message to whoever now has the account to see if they will transfer it over. The domain is useless to everyone apart from the owner and worth nothing either, so that might just do the trick!

That would seem to be a malicious registration designed to deprive the rightful registrant of the use of the name.

Good luck!