Domains accidentally renewed

[andy86]

I have the following problem:

An unnamed registrar, renewed my domains due to what they claim to be a technical error, and failed to notify me. The domains no longer appeared in my account, I was not charged for the renewal, and in fact, only found out about it half a year later.

My questions are:
1) is it legal for a registrar to renew a domain and keep it for themselves?
2) who is now the legal owner of the domains, me or the registrar?
3) are they legally obliged to delete the names if I ask them to?
4) are they legally obliged to restore the names to me if I ask them to?
5) if I ask them to restore the names, what would I asked to be asked to pay, considering the renewal was done without my asking for it, I was not notified of it and half the renewal time had passed before finding out about it?

 

[Dave_Z]

First off, welcome to the forum.

This is probably too simplistic, but pretty much the overall answer to all of the
questions you asked lies in your agreement with the registrar. But some things
to ask you as well:

1. Were you intending to renew the domain name since, as you said, you were
not billed despite the technical error?

2. Is your email address on record updated? Unfortunately there's documented
cases of emails not reaching their intended recipients for whatever reason, so
there's always the possibility your registrar's notices (if any) might be lost.

3. What is the domain name's current status and registrant?

But to answer #2 at least, the owner is whoever's listed as the registrant and
last paid for its current standing.

For now, I really don't see any problem. But...more details please.