I have had a domain name registered since 2001. It's current expiry on whois shows it registered to me until 02 Jul 2012.

Recently I tried to renew my expired hosting for this domain at the provider I have used forever. After paying them the money and waiting for my domain to come back online I noticed that all of their servers went offline and it appears they have gone out of business.

The hosting provider is reselling domains from PublicDomainRegistry.com, so I have contacted then in regards to getting it back as the original reseller has gone out of business. They have written back saying that the domain is in redemption period and I need to pay $85 for them to retrieve it. On whois the domain status reads HOLD PENDING DELETE RESTORABLE. My full details show up as the Registrant and the Admin and Tech contacts are the old, now bust, hosting provider.

Is it correct that the domain can be deleted when I have an outstanding valid registration for it for 12 more months? Should they be charging me this to get it back?

I do not really understand the process.

Thanks for your help!