What happens if I don’t renew my domain name by the expiry date?

If your registrar (the company who looks after your domain name for you) does not renew your domain name before the expiry date, we’ll send an email to the contact email address we hold for the legal owner of the domain name. The email will contain your registrar’s contact details, so you can contact them about renewing your domain name.

If you no longer have access to the email you registered your domain name with, please follow the steps to What do I do if I've lost access to my email account to re-establish your identity.

Please note: The process outlined below is our domain name expiry lifecycle, your registrar may follow a different process to this, which may result in your domain name and associated services being suspended before the times stated below.

EXPIRY DATE

Your domain name's expiry time is the anniversary (date and time) of when you registered it with your chosen registrar.

EXPIRY DATE
Regardless of when you actually renew your domain name, your renewal period will still start from your expiry date and time.

For example, if your domain name expires on 1st January 2023 at 10:00am, and you renew it on the 11th January 2023 for 1 year, your new expiry point will be 1st January 2024 at 10:00am.

Similarly, if you renew it ahead of the expiry time, i.e. on 20th December 2022 for 1 year, your new expiry point will still be 1st January 2024 at 10:00am.

EXPIRY GRACE PERIOD

Although your domain name has expired, it still exists, and you are able to renew it with your registrar

EXPIRY GRACE PERIOD
From: Expiry time
To: Expiry time + 30 days

If you have any questions or can no longer see the domain name in your registrar control panel, contact them to assist you in completing the renewal.

REDEMPTION GRACE PERIOD

Like with the Expiry Grace Period, your domain name is expired but still exists, and you are still able to renew it with your registrar.

REDEMPTION GRACE PERIOD
From: Expiry time + 30 days
To: Expiry time + 90 days

If you have any questions or can no longer see the domain name in your registrar control panel, contact them to assist you in completing the renewal.

At this point the domain name will start appearing on our daily drop list. It’s considered more likely it is no longer required and could shortly be deleted. Our drop list consists of a list of any domain name within this period, with the exact date and time each will drop if they are not renewed.

If you renew your domain name during this period, it will be removed from the drop list the following day.

PENDING DELETE PERIOD

Although the domain name still exists, your domain name is no longer renewable and is in a queue to be deleted.

PENDING DELETE PERIOD
From: Expiry time + 90 days
To: Expiry time + 95 days

The domain name will continue to appear in the daily drop list and it is now certain the domain name will be deleted at the exact date and time listed.

DOMAIN DELETION

The domain name is deleted, or “dropped”. Immediately after the drop time the domain name no longer exists and is available to anyone who wants to register it.

DOMAIN DELETION
Expiry time + 95 days

You can find out more about our daily drop list and how you may be able to register a domain name that is scheduled to delete here.

You can extend the registration term of your .UK domain name to be up to 10 years in the future, so you can ask your registrar about renewing your domain name for a longer period should you wish.

If you don’t know the expiry date or the registrar of your domain name, you can find out using our domain name lookup tool. 

Other products linked to your domain name (e.g. websites or email addresses) may have different expiry dates, so always check with your registrar that your domain name and chosen add-on services are renewed as required.

Do you want to check your registrar details?  

Use our domain name lookup tool to find out who your domain is registered with (your registrar) and how to contact them.

Domain lookup tool