UK Domains Drop Cycle

Drop Cycle

If a UK domain name (.co.uk or .org.uk) is not a pre-Nominet (nominet.org.uk) name, it will become available 92 or 99 days after the renewal date. A pre-nom (ie domain names show "Registered on: Before Aug-1996" in the whois, or have no 'created date' at all. These domain names are known as "pre-noms", or "pre-Nominet " and have seperate rules.

Names suspended before renewal date

These names have a renewal date in the future (not Pre-Nom) and are marked up as having a negative (-) number of days on our site.

Following changes to the Nominet (nominet.org.uk) Terms & Conditions in October 2004, these domains will be cancelled where the registrant has ceased to exist.

For example where the registrant is a Limited company that has been dissolved. These domains are dropped randomly by Nominet (nominet.org.uk) .

Pre-Nominet (nominet.org.uk) names

Please note that some domain names show "Registered on: Before Aug-1996" in the whois, or have no 'created date' at all. These domain names are known as "pre-noms", or "pre-Nominet (nominet.org.uk) " domains.

A pre-Nom UK domain name (.co.uk or .org.uk)is any .uk UK domain name (.co.uk or .org.uk)that was registered before the 1st August 1996, which is the date when Nominet (nominet.org.uk) took over the management of the .uk registry.

Nominet (nominet.org.uk) will make several attempts to contact the registrant of the domain name, and the UK domain name (.co.uk or .org.uk)will remain suspended while they do so.

If they are unsuccessful in contacting the legal registrant, Nominet (nominet.org.uk) will delete it at its discretion.

Only one senior member of Nominet (nominet.org.uk) staff decides on what day to drop a batch of pre-noms and the system then randomises those over that day.

Sometimes if the legal registrant is a dissolved company, the UK domain name (.co.uk or .org.uk)will will appear on Auction URLs while still in a suspended state.

You can find further details about pre-nom domain names on Nominet (nominet.org.uk) website.