Hi there -

I've got a client who has two business domains, registered in the name of his ex-partner.

With the ex-partner gone he adminstrates the business sites himself.

One is a .com registered through fasthosts through Tucows, and the other is a .co.uk registered through 1&1.

The question is, has this client any realistic chance of gaining control of his domain registrations in his own name?

For example, is there any possible recourse to going through Tucows and Nominet directly?

Or, really, should he simply look to move everything into new domains?

The sites are not actually well established, and moving isn't too huge a problem - ideally, this client would simply like to be able to control his own domain names. But is that either possible or likely?

What is the relationship with the ex-partner?

If they are on speaking terms then there is absolutely no problem with the .uk, they just need to do a bit of paperwork.

It should be similar with the .com but I can't comment as I'm not familiar with Tucows' procedures.

If they've fallen out it's a different matter...

i think registrars would contact the registrant then the admin contact to make sure if the reseller is alive or not if not then they might switch the ownership to the owner.

Originally posted by Bashar
i think registrars would contact the registrant then the admin contact to make sure if the reseller is alive or not if not then they might switch the ownership to the owner.

Not in the case of the UK domain!

The domain is legally registered to the person named as the registrant and it is this person that needs to action the transfer request ( cost is £30 + VAT) if the domain is declared in the whois info as a partnership and the registrant is the partnership name then there is a good possibility that this can be changed on instructions from any of the partners.

1) Does the partner have the log in information for the Fasthosts account?
2) Does the partner have access to the admin email address registered to the domain ( check the whois)

If (1) simple procedure log in and change the info and then change the password, if (2) transfer rthe domain out of Fasthosts and change the info at the same time

i'm not sure how it works for .uk, but for .com its totally different

>I've got a client who has two business domains,
>registered in the name of his ex-partner.

then the ex-partner is the regsitrant and tehrefore the legal owner of the domains.

transferring ownership will depend on
a. the ex-partner being willing
b. some procedures being followed and
c. most likely some fees being paid (35.25 for the .uk AFAICR)

PM me the domain names and I can give a bit more specific advice :)

Thanks for the advice all - I was mainly looking to see if it would be possible to by-pass the partner directly.

I'll advise him that this is unlikely, and to consider seeking his ex-partner's co-operation, or else to seek re-establishing on new domain names.