domain advice

[mikerawlinson]

I know this is not a design question but I think someone might be able to help.
I have been doing a website for a company for a year now and I bought and registered the Domain name.
Now they are going to a marketing company and have changed thier name but think they own the old domain
which I registered and I payed for..... They only paid me for one year which is what it states on my invoice.
I have paid for another year before they told me they were leaving and think they can just ask me to transfer
it to them for nothing.....I have offered it for £200.
Anyone know how i stand legally.

Thanks

Mike

[Cloud]

Firstly never ever register a clients domain name in your name, even if you have purchased it on their behalf; we always ask the client to register the domain to their name AND pay for it.

Now in your case where you have paid for and registered the domain, IF the domain is registered in your name then YOU own the domain, if you paid for it and registered it in their name then THEY own the domain. If in your contract you mentioned that the domain would be passed to the client or would be registered in their name then they could make a legal case - but the law is that the person/company registered as a domains owner IS the owner.

Legally of course no one owns a domain, you are merely renting it for a given period. Have a look at this site: http://www.webswonder.co.uk/who-owns-your-domain

[mikerawlinson]

Thanks for that info...... was helpful


Mike

[gwpriester]

Mike - If the domain name is registered in your name (and you don't own a domain name, you only rent it), you can ask for money to transfer the domain name over to your client.

Or, you can hold onto the domain name until it expires and then your client will either have to pay a large fee to get it out of the thirty day holding period, or take their chances that someone will not snap it up hoping to sell it for whatever the market will bear back to the original owner.

I created a website for a builder who failed to renew his domain name. When the 30 day period was up, it was snapped up by a guy in Australia who offered to sell it back. When my client refused, the new owner of the domain name, posted a gay porn site on the domain. My client still refused and a few months later the porn site was down.

It's a nasty world out there.

Fortunately, the site and domain name were fairly new and not established and my client just registered a new name.

[pauland]

I don't see things as quite so clear cut, though the advice given is good about purchasing domains.

The real question perhaps is whether you purchased the domain name on your clients behalf, in just the same way as you developed the website, it's not your website but something the client has paid for. The Maintenance issue for a year, well fine, but really wasn't the understanding that the domain was bought on behalf of the client?

In that sense you act as an agent for the client, so while technically you are the owner of the domain, in a general sense the domain was bought on behalf of the client and should have been registered in their name.

This should have been clear at the start, but I personally would hand them the domain. I don't see how you have any moral right to it since you bought it as part of the development agreement specifically for that client. They've paid the money in good faith for the website and trusted you with the technicalities without anticipating that you would be the owner of the domain name and not them.

The registration authority may see you as the domain owner, but that may contradict the agreement the client made with you, even if it's as vague as "Build me a website and sort out the domain". They may see this as more a case of you not doing what was asked in the first place. A bit like a lawyer buying a house for you but registering it as his own.

I might be tempted to charge a "nominal" fee to transfer over the domain (£25?, £50?) , but I wouldn't strongarm an old client out of £200.

[gwpriester]

Yeah, I would agree with you Paul. The domain name was in effect a work for hire type of thing and as such does belong to the client.

[TXAlba]

.....I have offered it for £200.
Anyone know how i stand legally.

not entirely sure how you stand legally if the name is registered in your name and the whois data is yours then its yours, i guess, but i would have thought the intention of your client was to own their domain, im sure, after all they must have picked the name??, it does not sound as if you have been transparent enough with your client, whether intentional or not.

I think you should give them the domain, you cant stop someone from moving a domain to another provider/host, Nominet....... will be all over this under "The person who has registered the domain name has taken unfair advantage of those rights." see here (you could contact them directly for advice)

No website owner/domain registrant or host provider should stop a client move to another, its bad for business, gives you a bad rep and karma will come a calling, how would you feel if someone came to you wishing to move their website to you and you met with similar brick walls from that website designer. How much did it cost you to register the domain £2, £6, £20 (with host) for a full year.........take the hit and chalk it up to experience.

My advice - transfer the domain and in future always register the domain in the clients name.

PS. Two Hundred Quid......very unreasonable.

[mikerawlinson]

Sorry i have been a little while replying but been away ....
The whole story is I took over the site when it was a .co.uk domain and did the work for around 5 years ....then I got an email saying they was going
to use another company who does all marketing and ticketing so would be easier to do the website....I just transfrered it all to the new company..
Having said that it did take a while to get my invoice paid up to date .......then they went bust with thier new venture and did not pay the new company
so the new company held onto the .co.uk domain.......I heard that they were tring to start over and registered the same name but .com I got intouch and they asked me to activate
the old site and get it up dated with new dates etc.
Now they are doing the same thing again .....want to go with another company after a year and a bit and told me to transfer the domain to the new company .
I am asking for £200 because they own me for updates...
I feel like they used me to get up and running again as i didn't charge them for a whole year and when I did they are going elsewhere.
The only thing I have is the domain to use as a lever if you get me .
I'm not unreasonable at all as I helped them to get going again without charge for a whole year but have been treated unreasonable.
Anyway thanks for your advice .....p.s I'm a nice guy who tried to help them when they had no money to get a site back up.

Mike

[pauland]

Mike, I'm sorry for the hassles, but I think now that your approach is entirely wrong.

First of all, the original question was about selling a domain, but now it seems you're charging for the domain in lieu of unpaid fees (I am asking for £200 because they own me for updates...).

I am sympathetic to any fees they may owe you, but that's what you should be invoicing for, not the domain.

You can then say that you will do absolutely no work, including transferring the domain, until all outstanding fees have been paid. That way the domain is a lever but you aren't charging for something that strictly isn't yours.

[mikerawlinson]

Yes I do agree Paul.... but makes me so mad when I did them a favor to start with .
I'm don't normally take this path as I'm all for an easy life but they did take the micky to be honest.
They used the site to thier advantage and never paid me .. . And they would have suffered as they are a
Travelling circus show and wouldn't have had any dates and venues up on the web for anyone to see.
Also they were mates as far as i thought.....the saying " No good deed goes unpunished " is about right.

Thanks for making me see it as it is .

Mike