Domain Ownership Issue

[Gobbledegeek]

I have a client who has recently purchased a business. The business has a website and domain name which was not specifically mentioned as an inclusion in the sale.

The domain is registered with a foreign business who states he maintained it as a friend of the previous owners.

To take legal ownership of the domain name, the 'legal' owner (not the previous business owner it seems), is demanding 2600 euros.

I advised my client to enquire with Nominet as to his rights and the appropriate course of action.

The 'legal' domain holder is obviously ****ed off and has now threatened to disable the service at the end of the week.

Obviously, with an established website and domain name disappearing along with the associated email addresses, there is going to be significant disruption and potential loss of earnings.

Can anyone please advise what one should do in this situation?

Any timely help would be much appreciated.

 

[Beansprout]

They should have obtained the domain with the sale...if the legal owner isn't the business, and the domain isn't a trademark etc, it might be hard to persuade Nominet that you should have it.

 

[fez]

I don't know that you would have too much of an issue with getting the domain transferred. He has no business with the site any more and as it has previously been used to host the businesses site then you should be able to argue that he is basically sitting on the domain for personal profit with no intention to use it.

2600 euros is taking the **** at any rate. He has no reason to own the domain any more. Did you buy the website with the company and its just the domain that you are having issues with? If there was no mention of the website then he has every right to take the site down but I think that he would have trouble keeping hold of the domain.

 

[Draeger]

€2600 is a rather random amount to be "demanding" for a website and domain. Are you sure it's not something along the lines of unpaid fee's that are due for maintaining the website that the previous business owner has not paid?. I've heard this happening before although obviously the new owner of the business should not have to foot the bill for unpaid fees by the previous owner. That sort of thing can all get horribly messy. What is the domain in question?.

Might not be the case though of course, just a possibility.

 

[Gobbledegeek]

Appreciate the replies, thanks.

By all accounts, the hosting and domain fees were paid up to the end of 2011 and so I don't see an issue with him pulling the site. I'm redeveloping the site anyway but holding onto a domain name that he has no apparent legitimate use for, does cause issue.

As stated, he has been maintaining both domain and hosting for the previous business and has no vested interest than letting the domain go for a profit, it seems.

He stated that the 2600 Euros was what he got from a domain appraisal website.

From what research I have done, including ICANN's guidelines and other documents, it appears that my client has a very valid case, especially given that the business name and domain name are one and the same.

I'm not really sure what else to advise my client as gaining an injunction to prevent the site being taken down until the domain name is transferred would be costly. Waiting for ICANN to make a decision could take some time also.

Personally, I am quite stubborn and would be happy to pursue this until the bitter end but my client's finances are already spread thin after the business sale.