Transferring .co.uk name owner

Does it have to cost 30GBP+VAT?

[robho]

I've brought and sold many existing .com domains mostly in minutes online without any problems (nor, or most cases, any transfer costs).

But the .co.uk names seem to cost 30 GBP plus VAT (total US$ 64), to transfer (change owner) via Nominet, and what's worse is it's a paper-based process which can cost more than that in time.

Since 99.9% of domain names have a value lower than this, is there any other option?

There are some nice .co.uk names on the market, but these transfer costs make trading in them, or even acquiring a few more to develop, very expensive compared to .com.

[jmccormac]

This seems to be a common thing with cctlds. The reason, often, is that it is a new contract between the owner and the registry. Effectively a new registration hence the new registration fee.

Regards...jmcc

[robho]

Effectively a new registration hence the new registration fee.

Actually the Nominet transfer cost is around 10 times the cost of registering a new .CO.UK domain. I presume this is because it's a manual paper-based procedure.

There was a note on the Nominet site a while back that they would be introducing an online transfer service "this year" but that seems to have been deleted now.

[IanTurner]

The cost incurred is mostly due to the legal problems associated with fraudulent transfer attempts.

Nominet have to cover costs of all transfers, the good, the difficult and the downright fraudulent as it is a not for profit organisation.

[CHC]

The ideal way to effect the "transfer" of a .co.uk domain name that is not worth a particularly high value is to get the vendor to sign the official Nominet transfer document (issued free of charge) and leave the "purchaser's section" blank. Once they have retagged the domain to the ISP of your choice you have full technical control of the domain and can change the DNS and change or suppress the address to be displayed in the public whois. If you ever have cause to sell on your acquisition you can simply hand the signed transfer document to the new purchaser and they can pay the transfer fee.

Another way that we as Nominet tagholders "transfer" domains in the first few weeks of their life is to delete and re-register them in the purchaser's name upon receipt of cleared funds. Saving a rainforest and the £35 fee in one fell swoop!

[DomainAngler]

Robbo:
Excellent advice from CHC.
I had to transfer a .co.uk domain last year and was very pleased with the service and support.

[robho]

get the vendor to sign the official Nominet transfer document

It's a good idea for names I intend to trade reasonably quickly. But one concern with this would be if Nominet change their procedures and in future require a different form.

This has already happened with the transfter forms printed on the back of the certificate, which they no longer accept. Difficult to go back to the original seller and get them to complete a new form!

Has anybody any information on whether Nominet will be doing online transfers anytime? (the legal issues are no different for .com but those transfers are secure enough nowadays).

[IanTurner]

Automatic online registrant transfers was discussed at the last Nominet AGM, there was a lot of discussion about how best to secure the transfers (i.e. Fraud Prevention).

As far as I know there are no actual timescales for the introduction of online registrant transfers and until the fraud prevention issues are cleared up I would argue that it is not a good idea to introduce online transfers.