Have You Tried Registering A .UK Yet?

[RedBar]

I have example.co.uk and want to start using example.uk as a.n.other site.

Simple? No, my main registrar accepts that I own example.co.uk but their system won't let me register it since "something" is clearly "wrong" about my existing registration, quite what since I've had it since 1994 I have absolutely no idea?

My secondary registrar, where example.co.uk is actually registered, says it is unavailable, yep I know that since I own example.co.uk, why won't your system let me register it?

So I am now waiting for someone to get back to me as to how to actually claim my name, it's a good job I'm not in a hurry!

[mack]

.uk is quite frustrating because I have a .me.uk and would love to have the .uk but first offer is always made to the owner of the .co.uk domain. It's a holding page in sedo grrr. they should open up the rules a little where a domain is not being actively used.

Mack.

[RedBar]

My secondary registrar has got back to me, apparently they ran over their Nominet daily threshold for name enquiries!

They're going to do a manual registration and get back to me later.

It's a holding page in sedo grrr.

So you have example.me.uk and example.uk is for sale or just sat there?

[mack]

It's not registered, but for the time being the only party that can register it is the .co.uk owner.

It appears priority is given to the .co.uk owner. if that is not registered it can be .me.uk .ltd.uk etc etc but in this case the .co.uk is owned, but not a thing is being done with it .. typical eh!

Mack.

[Leosghost]

Registered the .uk in June, ( already had the .com and the .fr and some other national suffixes ), never bothered registering the .co.uk as anyone in the world could register a .co.uk, without the need to have any presence in the UK,so in my eyes , and the eyes of many it had no credibility at all, was a spammers and scammers paradise..

Had no problems at all to register the .uk, but I have had a UK registered company ( with a UK company office address etc ) with the same name as the .uk for many years now ( I have the same company name registered as a business entity in many jurisdictions )..maybe that makes a difference ?

AFAIK the .co.uk holder ( if they owned example..co.uk before Oct 2013 ) has "preference" over the .uk for the next 5 years, presumably to give them time to realise that they ought to register it..meanwhile it is unavailable to anyone else..

The anomaly is that one has to have no UK connection at all to register a .co.uk..but one has to have a UK address to register a .uk..many who have .co.uk prior to Oct 2013 would / will not qualify to register the .uk..

Omnishambles is the polite word for how nominet has organised "the requirements"..IMO the .co.uk should never have existed, or if it had to ( why not just go direct to the two letter .uk like most if not all other countries did with their national suffixes )..it should have been a requirement that one had a UK address and / or a UK registered business.

[Samizdata]

one has to have a UK address to register a .uk

Chapter and verse from the Nominet Rules [nominet.org.uk...] :

- Any person may register a SLD within .uk

- Where a registrant address is not within the United Kingdom, a UK address for service must also be supplied

- PO Box addresses (or equivalent services) are not permitted

- The sale of third level registrations to unrelated third parties is not permitted

I take this to mean that you can have an accommodation address as long as it is not a PO Box.

Or, it seems, you can use an agent (which you can't do for .me.uk).

Omnishambles is the polite word

No comment, other than to say that anyone reading the Nominet Rules should note carefully the various usages of "intended to be", "required to be" and "must be".

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[RedBar]

- PO Box addresses (or equivalent services) are not permitted

Aha, that explains my whois for all my example.co.uk sites:

Data validation: Registrant name and address awaiting validation

I've been wondering why that was, I've only had them since 1994!

That really bugs me about some corporates who won't accept PO Boxes yet will write to you from their PO Box...I had a massive argument with a UK bank over this and they had to begrudgingly admit the two-facedness of it...and I never did give them the business.

[Samizdata]

The relevant phrase is "address for service".

This is a legal construct - you are deemed to have received any legal documents (writs, deeds, summonses etc) sent by snailmail to an "address for service" so it is often (but not always) a solicitor's office.

I assume it is the same with Nominet - you will be deemed to have received anything they send you.

I can't recall ever receiving anything from Nominet, but it would be important for disputes or terminations.

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[RedBar]

I can't recall ever receiving anything from Nominet

I have, 2002/2005/2006 Nominet registration certificates for domain names I had held for years, nothing since even though I have registered new domain names since then.

And they all went to my PO Box!

[Samizdata]

they all went to my PO Box

I downloaded all my Nominet "certificates" (last one was in 2007).

There was an option to have them emailed, no mention of snailmail.

Nominet moves in mysterious ways.

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[RedBar]

All sorted, new site up and running. This should be interesting, I'm leaving the original html 4.01 site on example.co.uk and have constructed a brand-new fully-responsive html5 site with all new images, more information etc.