Last week I was looking on eBay for domain names and came across a .co.uk name that I was interested in. It was listed with a Buy It Now price that, in my eyes, represented a fair market value and so I was all for buying it there and then.

But once bitten twice shy as they say. Because transferring a UK domain name, be it .co.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk, is not as simple as just “pushing” it from the seller’s account to the buyer’s account via a registrar’s control panel - as the seller stated in the listing.

“To transfer a domain name, both parties will need to complete a transfer form and send us a confirmatory letter,” says the Nominet website. Only when both parties have done this, and supplied Nominet with any requested ID, will Nominet process a transfer request. And until Nominet does process the transfer, that the name doesn’t change hands.

It’s something that not all sellers appreciate and now I don’t proceed with a purchase unless the seller is aware of the above and willing to provide the necessary paperwork. Otherwise I could hand over my money and even get control of the name, change nameservers and build a website. But it won’t be registered in my name. And that could lead to all kinds of problems further down the road.

So I contacted the seller of the domain name.

“Will you also provide Nominet transfer papers for this domain - a push via 123-reg does not change ownership,” I asked.

“Yes it does,” came the reply. “If you change all the admin details, tech details, ownership, 123-reg have to give Nominet this info by law.”

Well for starters you can’t change ownership via 123-reg’s control panel. Or any other control panel for that matter.

I assumed the seller had never transferred a name before so replied saying that transfer of ownership could only be done via Nominet and pointed him to the relevant section of the Nominet website.

“That’s fine”, came the reply, “but I own XXXXXXXX and we are a credited isp and hosting company. Every domain we have registered and hosted and transfered has never had a problem in the last ten years of trading.”

To me that was quite frightening. Ten years of supposedly transferring UK domain names, and the seller doesn’t know that a transfer is only valid if it is approved by Nominet.

In a later message, the seller did say he would fill out the Nominet transfer papers if requested, but I can only assume that he has been selling domains to clients who have no idea that transfer of ownership has to pass through Nominet for it to be official. Which means they may well have paid for names, but the registered owner is still the seller.

I walked away - and would advise anyone else thinking of buying a UK domain name to do the same unless it is clear from the outset that the necessary paperwork will be completed by both parties.

Otherwise you could spend time and money developing a domain name that you don’t even own.