question Need advice.

[i3urn]

Around 13 months ago I started the sale of a domain and received payment for thus domain, the requested the the buyer transfer the domain ... 2 months pass before I hear from the buyer telling me that they can't transfer the domain as the EPP key is wrong (because they waited so long to transfer).

By this point the domain needed to be renewed so I requested that the buyer pay for the renewal, which they told me to send them a PayPal request for the money which I did.

10 months go by and I haven't heard from the buyer and received no renewal fee and the buyer hadn't sent me there account username so that I could transfer the domain after the renewal fee was paid.

By this point since 10 months had passed, I had forgot about the deal and when a buyer came along for the domain I sold it not thinking.

But now not 1 month later the buyer has reappeared with stories of how he tried to email me and now that he is suing me for theft as I have sold the domain.

Any advice would be welcomed.

 

[anantj]

Contact a lawyer!

 

[Kuffy]

It should be noted however that, upon sale, the bailee should account to the bailor for the proceeds of sale (less any costs of sale i.e. auction fees). If a bailee cannot locate the bailor then the bailee is obligated to hold onto the proceeds of sale for a reasonable period of time to allow the bailor to make contact and collect. A bailee is therefore not able to profit from the sale of a bailor’s goods.

That is from an article on this page -
https://www.stephens-scown.co.uk/co...hey-anyway-dealing-with-involuntary-bailment/

I'm not sure how relevant it is, but it seems that you should have taken reasonable steps to enable the buyer to collect the goods. I don't know what constitutes reasonable steps in the case of domain names. It could be construed that because the buyer allowed the name to go through a notional drop cycle, he no longer had an interest in the name. It's an interesting legal situation, and I hope a lawyer can clarify things.

 

[Silentptnr]

Would have been good to put a time limit or something in writing via email at least. This way, the buyer would have understood what would happen if the domain expired.

As long as the buyer was willing to pay renewals, I would probably not have sold the domain as it was already technically sold.

Maybe you could apologize and offer to refund all his money.

I have had that happen. It's weird when it happens. In my case, I paid the renewal, but asked the buyer to reimburse me once they finally were able to take the domain.

Best of luck with it.

 

[Cdomains]

This is a tricky one.

I think you made it worse for your case because you sold the domain again after you already sold it and collected the money from the first buyer.

@anantj is right - I think you need a lawyer on this one.

 

[1Darko]

I don't know in which country you're living but you should contact a lawyer as soon as possible. This could end very ugly for you in case of criminal charges.
You should also consider to check if you're maybe a victim of organised crime.

 

[BaileyUK]

By this point since 10 months had passed, I had forgot about the deal and when a buyer came along for the domain I sold it not thinking.

But now not 1 month later the buyer has reappeared with stories of how he tried to email me and now that he is suing me for theft as I have sold the domain.

Any advice would be welcomed.

On Point 1, I wouldn't use this as a defence, unless you literally handle dozens of sales a year where a double sale (oversight) is a possibility. Again if you'd made all reasonable attempts to contact the buyer to proceed with the transfer, you should have records of those emails and transfer failures. These you should notify the buyer that you have retained.

On Point 2, It may be relevant to take into account the value of the transaction. Are we talking 4 or 5 figures ?? or just a couple of hundred

*have you already received official notification of the Court action, or is this just a threat ??

 

[Maple Fly]

If your financial status is high then you can file the case against him, if you don't have enough money or you are belong to middle class then you can also file the case but everyone trying to stop you, during this could be possible you win the case but can loose your everything. i appreciate you if you could do this.

 

[BaileyUK]

Since no replies from original poster, I'm guessing it's a $30 sale, testing the water.

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