My domain name has expired. What do I do?

By Charlie B, Deliberate Design.

The short answer: act today. An expired domain is not gone; it sits in a grace period, usually 30 days for a .uk and up to about 40 for a .com, during which you can renew at the normal price. After that it gets more expensive, then it is released and anyone can register it.

The stages

Stage	.uk	.com
Expired, site and email stop	Day 0	Day 0
Renew at normal price	Up to 30 days	Usually up to 30 to 40 days
Renew at a higher fee	Nominet suspends it; registrar may still restore for a fee up to about 90 days	Redemption period, 30 days, often £60 to £150 to restore
Released to anyone	About 90 days	About 75 days

What to do now

1. Log in at the registrar and renew. If you cannot log in, use the account recovery and have your ID ready
2. If the account was your old designer's, see our post on a designer who has disappeared
3. Check email is flowing again once it renews. It can take a few hours

If it has been released

Check whether anyone has registered it. If not, register it again immediately. If someone has, usually a domain squatter, you can wait for them to drop it, or make an offer, or for a .uk raise a dispute with Nominet if they are using your business name in bad faith.

Stop it happening again

• Auto renew on, with a card that does not expire this year
• The registrar emails going to an address you read
• Renew for several years at once

With us the domain renewal is in the monthly fee and we watch the dates.