Can a non-UK person really buy domains?

[stephw]

Hello,

I've read that non-UK persons can register .UK domain names, but it seems like Nominet, the central registry for .UK, requires that a "registrant" contact in the UK is set when a domain is registered. How does a non-UK person find a UK contact as the registrant?

Regards!

 

[arnydnxluk]

In the past .uk domains registered to an overseas address required a service address in the UK which could not be a PO box.

Since May 2018 the service address is no longer required, so you should be fine to register the .uk domain assuming the Right of Registration does not belong to another registrant.

https://registrars.nominet.uk/news/nominet-announcements/gdpr-changes-uk

The rules for 2nd level registrations will be aligned with the third level rules. Address for service will no longer be required and PO Boxes will be accepted as valid address types.

 

[stephw]

In the past .uk domains registered to an overseas address required a service address in the UK which could not be a PO box.

Since May 2018 the service address is no longer required, so you should be fine to register the .uk domain assuming the Right of Registration does not belong to another registrant.

How about .co.uk? I read that it requires some UK contact:

Nominet, the central registry for .UK requires that a "registrant" contact in the UK is set when a domain is registered. This registrant cannot be changed later through your Dynadot account. Instead, you will need to create an account with Nominet using the email address you registered your .UK domain with. From there, you can make changes to the registrant information (there may be a fee).

Unfortunately I don't have the privilege to paste the link here, but it's on Dynadot.

 

[arnydnxluk]

How about .co.uk? I read that it requires some UK contact:

Honestly speaking I don't have much experience with this – as a small UK business I think all (if not most) of our Nominet domain registrants are based in the UK.

That said, I don't know about Dynadot but it "should" be fine, just select the "Non-UK Individual", "Non-UK Corporation" or "Other Non-UK Entity" registrant type and enter your non-UK address. As far as I know, Nominet supports overseas addresses (for example see this screenshot I just took or this documentation).

 

[WESH.UK]

Hi Stephw

Any person may register a "Second Level Domain" (.co.uk for example.)

From the Nominet Rules:

7. SLD registrations (NOTE RESERVATION RIGHTS APPLY TO CERTAIN HOLDERS OF THIRD LEVEL REGISTRATIONS UNTIL 10 JUNE 2019) In order to register a new Domain Name as a SLD within .uk, the following requirements apply:

• Any person may register a SLD within .uk​

When registering, simply select Non-UK Individual/Corporation/Entity and fill in as normal.

The rules for registering a .UK are the same but with 2 exceptions:

• Where the registrant is overseas an address for service in the UK is required.
• PO Boxes are unacceptable in the address.

So to answer your query, somebody overseas can buy a .UK domain, but only if they have a UK Service address, otherwise it will need to be a .co.uk.

 

[arnydnxluk]

The rules for registering a .UK are the same but with 2 exceptions:

• Where the registrant is overseas an address for service in the UK is required.
• PO Boxes are unacceptable in the address.

This is no longer the case since May 2018, see here.

 

[WESH.UK]

My bad, forgot about that GDPR Update.
Had these rules ingrained for so long its almost habit.