Suspended domain?

A domain I am after is marked as 'suspended', what does this mean?

[Deester]

Hi all,

A domain I want to register (but has been registered by someone else for a long time) seems to have expired but all the domain registrars say the domain is not available although its expiry date was about 14 days ago.

Here is the info:-

*** This Registration has been SUSPENDED ***

Relevant Dates:
Registered on: 10-Jun-2003
Renewal Date: 10-Jun-2005
Last updated: 14-Jun-2005

Registration Status:
Renewal required.
-------------------

Why can't I register this if it has expired already?

Anyone come across this before?

Thanks,
Deester

[nativenewyorker]

Domains go through a 3-step grace period after expiration until they get released by the registry. A typical expiration will be consist of

1) Registrar Hold (usually 30-45 days)
2) Redemption Period (usually 30 days)
3) Pending Delete (usually 5 days)

Add this on to the expiration date of the domain. Under normal circumstances, the domain you are trying to get will become available for registration approximately mid-late August 2005.

[Edwin]

The "Suspended" status looks like you're talking about a .co.uk domain. In which case, the relevant extract from Nominet's FAQ is as follows:-

When a detagged domain name becomes due for renewal, Nominet has a duty to contact the registrant of the detagged domain name to confirm that they do not want to renew the domain name before it can be cancelled. Once a registrant has confirmed they no longer require their domain name, or has not paid their renewal invoice by 30 days after the expiry date, the domain name will then be suspended for 60 days. After the 60 day suspension period the domain name will be cancelled and will then be available for registration by someone else.

In other words, there's a DETAGGED phase (sometimes but not always) and then a SUSPENDED phase. The latter lasts 60 days.