Lost Domain retrieval

[stevebar]

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

We recently lost our domain for our business as our auto-renew was switched off by someone and notifications were sent to a different email so we were not aware of what happened until it was gone and sold to another domain buyer.
We are in contact with the domain reseller and have made them aware of the situation with evidence of our trading business but they are ransom pricing the domain in order to sell it back to us.

Is there anything we can do with nominet or other solutions we could use to retrieve our domain for a genuine trading business without being held to ransom.

I would appreciate any help.
Thanks.

 

[tonyk2000]

Hi @stevebar

It is hard to say anything without an exact domain name / extension (at least, is it .uk / .co.uk domain, may be the case since you mentioned nominet), relevant dates, and the service providers involved.

Most likely: Domains are not owned but are leased for fixed periods of time. If the domain registrant does not renew the lease - domains are released back to general public. Some are registered again (many thousands each and every day). New registrant is most likely unaware of your company, he likely won (and paid the winning bid) it together with a number of other domains... just his daily job. He might list the domain for sale (@ aftermarket price) though. If you have a trademark - then there may be ways to receive the domain back.

The above scenario is not necessary applicable in your particular case. Moreover, if it is .co.uk domain - then you'll likely receive better or faster responses on UK's Domain Names Forum(s). Cannot post a link, as Namepros forum software will block it, it tends to block links to other forums of similar nature.