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Anyone can register .uk domain names on a first-come, first-served basis.

An address for service in the United Kingdom will be required for registrants who live overseas. We will use the Admin contact for this address. PO Boxes will be unacceptable. (Does not apply for .co.uk and .org.uk domain names.)

These domain names can have up to 63 characters, with a minimum of three characters, and can contain letters (a to z), numbers (0 to 9), and hyphens (except at the beginning or end of the domain name). You cannot register domain names with special characters such as & and #.

Registration rules for the new .uk domain extension is available in the What Right to Reserve rules apply to new .uk domain names? section below.

Registrants who own an existing co.uk, org.uk, me.uk, net.uk, plc.uk or ltd.uk before Oct. 29, 2013 will have their .uk domain name reserved for free up until June 10, 2019, as long as the existing domain name remains registered.

For those who have the same name but different domain name endings -- like www.example.co.uk and www.example.org.uk -- can use the Rights lookup tool at www.dotuklaunch.co.uk website to find out who has the rights to the www.example.uk domain name.

When a third-level (.co.uk, .org.uk, etc.) domain is registered with another company and the corresponding second-level (.uk) domain is registered with us, it will be flagged for First Rights due to it's corresponding domain's registration elsewhere.

The Registry (Nominent) will contact the third-level domain registrant via email to confirm whether or not they want the domain name. If they do not want it, they'll need to follow the instructions provided in the email to authorize the purchase. They will have 7 days to authorize the purchase, otherwise the registration won't go through and the domain name will not resolve.

Order of Priority for Right Holders:

First Priority: Those who registered a co.uk domain before 10/29/13
Second Priority: Those who registered a org.uk domain before 10/29/13
Third Priority: Those who registered a me.uk domain before 10/29/13
Fourth Priority: Those who registered a co.uk domain between 10/29/13 and 6/9/14

Right to Reserve Rules:

• New registrations of .co.uk domains made before June 10, 2014 (provided that no other equivalent .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, ltd.uk or .plc.uk exists) will get the rights to the new .uk domain.
• After launch on June 10, 2014 any new registrations within the .uk family (e.g. in .co.uk, .org.uk, etc.) no longer get automatic rights to register the new .uk domain. So these new .uk domains become available for anyone to register.
• Anyone wanting a new .uk domain where there are no existing domains with rights, will simply be able to register the new .uk domain.
• Domains must be continuously registered to retain the rights to the new .uk - however, if a .co.uk with rights is not renewed between now and June 10, 2014, then it regains the rights if it is re-registered prior to June 10, 2014.
• If you have the right to register a new .uk domain then that right will move with the domain if you transfer your domain to another person, as long as it remains continuously registered.
• All rights to new .uk domains will cease if an existing domain is not renewed.

Nominet is the registry for .uk domain names.

You can register .uk domain names for a minimum and maximum of one year and a maximum of 10 years.

Your .uk domain name renews before its expiration date. We attempt auto-renewal 14 days prior to the domain name's expiration date. If the renewal attempt fails, we re-attempt renewal seven days prior to the domain name's expiration date and again one day after the domain name's expiration date.

If we cannot auto-renew the domain name and you do not manually renew it before the third billing attempt, it becomes unmanageable in your account until it is renewed.

The .uk transfer process is unique to the Nominet registry.

To initiate a .uk transfer, you must do the following:

• If available on our website, purchase a .uk transfer for $0.

  NOTE: The .uk transfer does not include a free one-year extension because the transfer is free.

• Contact your current registrar and request an IPS tag change to WILDWEST. Once updated, the transfer completes immediately.

NOTE: When you complete either of the steps above, we will send an email to the registrant contact's email or to the account holder's email address. You must follow the instructions listed in the email to initiate a .uk transfer.

To transfer a .uk domain name to another registrar, contact our support team to request the transfer and provide us with the following:

• A specific request to transfer the domain name. Include the full domain name in the request.
• The IPS Tag name of your new registrar.

  NOTE: Nominet issues a case-sensitive IPS tag to each registrar approved to manage .uk domain names. Transferring a .uk domain name requires an update of the IPS tag information.

• Account validation information (customer account number or user name and your call-in PIN).

No. Domains By Proxy® private registration and Protected Registration are not available for .uk domain names. Instead, you can contact Nominet and request privacy services through them.

No. We do not support the backorder of .uk domain names.

Yes, but there are limitations. When you move a domain name, you cannot change the registrant first name, last name, and company name.

Yes. For registrant contact information, first update it through Nominet. After your new information displays in the Nominet Whois database, contact our support team to update your contact information with us.

You can update all other contact information through the Domain Manager. See Update contact information for more information.

With .uk domain names, the type of contact update you want to make might include a fee. See Nominet's Transfer page for information on free vs. fee-based changes.

You can use any valid nameservers with .uk domain names. You can enter a maximum of 10 nameservers per domain name.

We support DNSSEC for .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domain names.

See Managing DNSSEC for Your Domain Name for information on enabling DNSSEC for your .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domain names and About Self-Managed DNSSEC for information on the digital signature (DS) fields required for it. You can configure a maximum of ten DS records for your domain names.

You can contact us at ukverify@secureserver.net.

We will respond to your emails within three business days.

If we do not receive a response from you within 10 days we will consider the case to have been resolved. If you are not satisfied with the resolution to your complaint, you can escalate it by providing a clear description and submitting it again to ukverify@secureserver.net.