.uk domain renewals and expiry: what agencies need to know

How .uk registration works

Nominet runs the .uk registry: .uk, .co.uk, .org.uk and the rest. It doesn't usually sell to the public. Registrars do, and each registrar holds its domains on its own "tag" at Nominet. The registrant, the client, owns the right to use the domain for the term paid for, which Nominet's renewal rules set at between one and ten years.

Renewal is the registrar's job. Nominet lets registrars renew automatically, set a number of days ahead (anything from 1 to 182 days before expiry), which is why one registrar renews a month early and another the night before. What the client sees as "auto-renew" is the registrar's own setting, paid with the card on the registrar account.

The timeline after expiry

Since September 2022, every .uk domain follows the same path after its expiry date. These are the stages in Nominet's expiry process and the emails it sends the registrant under its renewal reminder rules:

Nominet's drop list is public and updated daily, and people who collect expiring domains read it. A domain with an established website, inbound links or a known email address is worth something to someone, and day 95 is when they can have it.

Two cautions. First, registrars can opt out of Nominet's reminder emails, except the cancellation warning, and send their own instead. Second, the registrar's terms can add their own steps and fees on top of this timeline, so read them.

What breaks, and when

Days 0 to 30: nothing visible. That's the trap. The site loads, email flows, and the reminders go to whoever is on the registration.

Day 30: everything at once. With the domain gone from the .uk zone, it no longer exists as far as the internet is concerned:

• The website stops loading, on every address, including www.
• Email to the client bounces back to senders, and their own outgoing mail starts failing checks at the receiving end, because the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are no longer found.
• Anything else on the domain stops too: the booking system on a subdomain, the client's Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace sign-in names, links in every email signature and printed leaflet.

Renew during suspension and the domain comes back, but it can take some time for the change to reach every DNS resolver, and email sent while it was down won't be redelivered.

How .com and other gTLDs differ

Many clients have a .com beside the .co.uk, and generic domains follow different rules. ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires registrars to send reminders about a month and a week before expiry, and one more within five days after. It doesn't fix the day the domain stops working: the registrar must interrupt its DNS for at least the last eight days that the registrant can still renew, and some do so straight away, sometimes replacing the website with a parking page. If the registrar then deletes the domain, the registry keeps it in a 30-day redemption period when it can still be restored, usually for an extra fee.

The practical difference: a .co.uk gives you a predictable 30 days of working time, while a .com can go dark the day after expiry, depending on the registrar. Treat the expiry date as the deadline for both.

Why auto-renew fails

Almost no lapsed domain was meant to lapse. The usual causes:

• The card expired. The registrar tries to renew, the payment fails, and the failure notice goes to the account email.
• The account belongs to someone who left. The original web designer, a former office manager, or a director's personal email. Every notice goes to an inbox nobody reads.
• Auto-renew was never on, or was switched off during a dispute, a registrar migration or a change of plan.
• Nobody knew the domain existed. The old brand name, the .com twin, the campaign domain. If it's still in use somewhere, its expiry still matters, and if it isn't, it should be protected as a parked domain and kept.

If a client's domain has already expired

1. Work out the day count. The expiry date is in the public registration record (our free domain expiry checker reads it from Nominet). Before day 90, it can be renewed.
2. Renew through the registrar. Log in to the account that holds it and renew. If nobody has the login, start the registrar's account recovery now, because it can take days.
3. If the registrar can't or won't help, contact Nominet's domain support. From day 23 the registrant can renew in their own Nominet online account.
4. Once it's back, check the DNS records are as they were, especially MX, SPF and DMARC, and send a test email. Then fix whatever let it lapse.

After day 90 there's no renewal. All you can do is try to register it again on day 95, in competition with anyone else who wants it.

A renewal process for agencies

You can't stop clients letting cards expire. You can make sure someone notices in time.

1. One list. Every domain every client owns, with its registrar, its expiry date and who holds the login. Start from the domain expiry fix page for the basics.
2. The client as registrant. Registrations in the client's name, with a shared address such as domains@ rather than one person's inbox. Then Nominet's own reminders reach someone.
3. Alerts you control. Don't rely on the registrar's emails. Watch the expiry date from the public record and alert at 30 days and again at 7.
4. A named owner. Someone at the agency who acts on the alert and confirms the renewal went through, not just that a reminder was sent.
5. Show it to the client. A renewal date on a monthly report is a gentle nudge before the card fails, and proof that you're watching.

Freelancers looking after a dozen clients have the same problem on a smaller scale; our page for freelancers covers that, and the one for web agencies shows how expiry alerts fit with the other daily checks. Domain Health Hub reads each .uk expiry date from Nominet's public RDAP record daily, warns at 30 days and fails the check at 7, and puts the renewal date on the client report card.

Doing this for clients? Domain Health Hub checks every client domain each day and puts the results in a monthly report card with your logo. Start a free trial; no card needed.