What would you do if previous owner contacts you?

[PowerUp]

What would you the owner of a previous domain, that you own now, contacts you?

I have just bought a generic dot com. Earning good domain parking income. Previous owner contacts me, seeking a solution. What would you do if you were me?

The market value for generic domains about 5 times the annual parking income. And I have a strong feeling the previous owner will not be willing to pay this amount. Should I even offer this asking price to him? Or just tell him "It's not for sale."

I'd also like to hear your experience when faced with previous owner contacting you.

 

[acronym007]

You don't really need to know the history, the domain is yours to do with it as you choose. I won a legal/law domain in a drop/auction, the lawyer wrote to me and said it was his and he was going to sue me to get it. I tried to politely explain the expiration process to him and that I would surely sell it to him for x,xxx. He flipped our and never wrote back in three years. I still have the domain. If it means nothing to you then sell for a profit and move on.

However, don't fall for any sad sappy stories on how they have no money or this or that. Give them a price and move on with or without them.

 

[PowerUp]

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate it.
There wasn't any info I could find from Archive that I could use to verify the previous owner. So I just told him outright "It's not for sale." I didn't offer any indicative price. Haven't heard from him since. Guess he's just another scammer.

 

[Carlton]

The responsibility to renew the domain rests first with the prior registrant, and secondly with the registrar he was using who generally have some customer service duty to contact the registrant prior to the domain's expiration.

You have zero obligation to him, and rightfully acquired the domain as an investment. An analogy would be someone who fails to make the mortgage payment on their home and it gets repossessed by the bank. The bank then puts the house in public auction where you purchase it. The home is yours. Think how ridiculous it would be for the prior owner, who defaulted on his loan, to come to you weeks later with a sob story asking to have the home back.

 

[cache]

whoever auctioned that domain has more to be blamed than you.

 

[gazzip]

whoever auctioned that domain has more to be blamed than you.

Thats a valid point cache, many of the registrars have technically speaking, already "took ownership" of the domain before they chose to "pass" the domain to their partners to sell at auction.

Every step of the way was a concious decision on their part and both registrar and drop company have shared in the profit.

If they had'nt took ownerships then the drops would be a free for all which it is not for the most part.


.

 

[Malaysia]

well my case even funnier.. a domainer saw a domain name i was selling on namepros n pm me n say how come i am selling his domain name..then after few checks n calls to godaddy , apparently he forgot to renew n i register it when it was available. He claimed he has been the previous owner for the past 3 years but he was polite and all n he dint want back the domain after that n i continue selling it at $50 only.lol.
i was shocked also when he pm coz i verify again the domain is really in my acct.

 

[RogueWriter]

The responsibility to renew the domain rests first with the prior registrant, and secondly with the registrar he was using who generally have some customer service duty to contact the registrant prior to the domain's expiration.

You have zero obligation to him, and rightfully acquired the domain as an investment. An analogy would be someone who fails to make the mortgage payment on their home and it gets repossessed by the bank. The bank then puts the house in public auction where you purchase it. The home is yours. Think how ridiculous it would be for the prior owner, who defaulted on his loan, to come to you weeks later with a sob story asking to have the home back.

I agree. I've lost a few domains simply because of money constraints, and regretted it ever since, but I wouldn't expect to get those domains back for less than market price, business is business.