A name is renewed because I decided to keep it.

The decision

Nothing is set to pay itself, and no card details sit anywhere. Ahead of each expiry date I look at the name on its own and ask one question: is it still doing a job?

• If it is, I renew it for another 1 year.
• If it is not, I let it expire and it goes back to the registry.

Letting a name go is a perfectly good outcome and costs nothing. The only bad version is the accidental one, which is why the dates are tracked rather than remembered.

Past day 95 nothing can be recovered, by me or by any other registrar anywhere.

If a name here belonged to someone else

None does, and registering names for other people is not something I offer. Nominet caps the possibility anyway, at the lower of 50 names or 5% of the tag. Were such a registration ever made, these duties would come with it, owed to that registrant and not to me:

1. An expiry notice at least 30 days before the date, by email, to whatever contact address the registration carries. Nominet sets that floor, and it holds for every registrar regardless of tag.
2. Nominet’s terms of registration made known before the registration is created and again before each renewal.
3. No renewal without instruction. Silence would renew nothing.
4. A move to another registrar on request, acted on promptly and at no charge.

Working out the dates

Put in the expiry date of any .UK name and the stages below are worked out from it. The dates are a guide; the registry’s own record is what counts.

After expiry

If a .UK name is not renewed, Nominet takes it through the stages below, whoever holds it. Days are counted from the expiry date.

• Day 0 to 30

  Expiry grace period.The name still works: anything running on it carries on for now, and it can still be renewed normally.

• Day 30 to 90

  Redemption period.The name goes offline: any website or email on it stops working. Nominet adds it to the lists registrars watch for names that may soon be released. You can still renew it, and renewing takes it off those lists again.

• Day 90 to 95

  Pending deletion.The name is still offline, and now nobody can renew it.

• After day 95

  Deleted.At a time Nominet announces in advance, the registration is cancelled and anyone may then register the name.

A name may also be suspended earlier by Nominet under its own policies, for example where registrant details go unconfirmed or where the name is used for crime. See clause 8 and clause 6 of the Terms.

Letting a name go

Nothing gets cancelled and nothing changes hands. A name I have finished with is simply not renewed.

1. Whatever runs on the name is moved or switched off first, so that nothing breaks on a date nobody is watching.
2. The name passes its expiry date untouched.
3. After day 95 Nominet deletes the registration and the name is open to all comers.

From that point anyone may register it and I have no further claim on it. That is how a .UK registration normally ends, not how one goes wrong.

Moving a name off this tag

A registration can move to another registrar at any point in the year, including the week before expiry, and Nominet makes no charge for it. The receiving registrar gives their Nominet tag, the name is released to it, and from then on the notices come from them.

A move leaves the registration and its expiry date untouched. What moves is the registrar, not the entry.

From 9 February 2027 tags are no longer used for moves. A transfer code is issued instead, within 5 days of the request and at no cost, and the receiving registrar has 14 days to use it before it runs out.