Fasthosts Internet Limited are a UK Registrar, an accredited member of the .UK Registry Nominet UK and a reseller on behalf of OpenSRS/Tucows. Fasthosts therefore has an obligation as part of our contractual agreements to assist Registrants should they contact us directly.
If you are the Domain Administrator:
If we are contacted by the Registrant of a domain name which you are administering within your Fasthosts account, in the first instance we will ask the Registrant to contact you directly as the account holder currently managing their domain. Should the Registrant be unable to contact you, we have implemented a procedure to assist Registrants, namely the ‘Domain Release’ process.
This involves Fasthosts assisting the Registrant in regaining control of their domain registration. We will:
- Attempt to contact you as the account holder via the email address held against your Fasthosts account to notify you of our intent to release the domain registration to the Registrant. Contact attempts will start on the day we receive the request and will continue across a 48 hour period (Mon-Fri excluding Public Holidays);
- If after 48 hours you have not responded to us, we will proceed to release the domain to the Registrant. Before doing so, we will verify the requestor’s identity and entitlement to the domain by requesting proof of ownership in the form of relevant documentation;
- Once verification is complete, the domain registration will be removed from the account in which it is held and transferred to the Registrant;
- Should your account be closed or pending closure due to outstanding debt and we are contacted by Registrants of domains held within your account, we will assist the Registrants to gain control of their registrations. No contact with you will be made by Fasthosts in this instance.
- Fasthosts will not release website or email data to the Registrant; this process only applies to the domain name registration.
If Fasthosts receive a Domain Release request which involves a dispute over payment for the registration or renewal of the domain, we will allow you to recover any outstanding amount due for the domain name only, prior to the domain being released to the Registrant.
Important: No other outstanding fees e.g. Consultation, Web Design, Hosting fee etc. can be used to withhold a registration from being released to the Registrant if requested.
If you are requesting the release of a domain you must:
- Ensure that all efforts are made to resolve any dispute with your supplier in relation to the domain registration prior to making your request. Note: Fasthosts is not a legal adjudicator in such disputes. However, we may review the circumstances of all domain release requests on a case-by-case basis and advise accordingly if we are able to assist;
- Note that for domain registration related Trademark disputes, Fasthosts cannot intervene. Please see our ‘Domain Dispute Terms’ https://www.fasthosts.co.uk/terms/domains/domain-dispute
- Confirm that you do not owe any payment for the domain registration or renewal to your supplier. If such fees are owed, you must resolve this with your supplier directly;
- Be able to provide evidence to prove ownership of the domain. If you do not have evidence we will be unable to release the domain to you;
- Be aware that Fasthosts are unable to offer access to any hosting services, including website or email hosting packages associated with the domain for which you have requested release;
- Open a Fasthosts account to enable us to release the domain to you directly;
- Accept the £20 + VAT domain release fee which is charged only upon successful release of the domain.