The .uk country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) is an extension that represents the United Kingdom. The information below applies to the following country-code second-level domain names (ccSLDs) that we offer at this time:

LAUNCHING 6/10: .uk – Intended for everyone
A registrant who purchased any of the domain extensions below before Oct. 29, 2013 has the first rights to reserve and purchase the corresponding .uk domain. The .uk is automatically held for them until 2019, as long as they retain the original domain. Even if a domain search shows the .uk as available, it will reject the registration if someone else owns the .co.uk, .org.uk, etc. Registrant information for the .uk has to match exactly, and is case sensitive.

For more information about Right to Reserve, see Right to Reserve guidelines for .uk domains

• .co.uk – Intended for commercial entities
• .me.uk – Intended for private individuals
• .org.uk – Intended for non-profit organizations

 Note: If you’ve lost your Nominet login credentials, you can retrieve that information from Nominet using the email address with which you registered your domain.

Domain names can be 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 #.

Customer Support

 Note: POWERHOSTER.COM provides live 24/7/365 telephone customer support for all inquiries, incidents, and issues. Most all are addressed during the call itself by our award-winning customer support team. When escalation is required, the majority of issues are resolved within 72 hours, but exceptions do occur depending on the complexity of the issue. Should you wish to escalate an issue, please ask our customer support team to do so on your behalf.

Details

Transfers In requirementsThe .uk transfer process is unique to the Nominet registry.

To initiate a .uk transfer, you must:

1. 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.

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

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.

 Note: .uk transfers can sometimes take several days to complete.

Transfers out requirements

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

1. A specific request to transfer the domain name. Include the full domain name in the request.
2. 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.

3. Account validation information (customer account number or user name and your Support PIN).

Private Registration details

Private registration is currently available for the co.uk, org.uk and me.uk extensions of the .uk domain, but the privacy address shown on the account will be a US address.

Account change requirements

When you move a domain name, you cannot change the registrant first name, last name, and company name.

Note: You will need to cancel Private Registration prior to a change of account.

Contact updates requirements

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

Note: During the verification process, the domain name request is assigned a status code of 254 (“.UK Data Validation Process”). For more specific instructions regarding the .uk contact verification process, please see Verifying Contact Information for .UK Data Validation Process.

Nameservers requirements

Only one IPv4 address is allowed per host and also only one IPv6 address. It is however possible to assign an IPv4 and an additional IPv6 address to a single host.

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

See Manage DNSSEC for my domain 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.

 Note: You can contact us at [email protected] if you have further questions or concerns about .uk domains.

Nameserver updates can take up to 5 days to complete.

Domain cancellations

Per Nominet requirement, only the registrant can cancel the .UK domain name. You should only cancel a .UK domain if you are sure that you no longer need it. Once you submit the request it cannot be reversed. Once submitted for cancellation, the .UK domain will be removed from the registry on the day of cancellation at some point before midnight. At this point, the .UK domain name will be available for anyone to register. To submit a cancellation request please log into Online Services.

Right to Reserve guidelines for .uk domains

What is the right to reserve?

In 2014, the .UK registry introduced .uk as a shorter, sharper domain name to sit alongside existing options such as .co.uk and org.uk.

If you registered a .co.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk domain before 10 June, 2014, you may have the reserved right to the matching .uk domain. For example, the owner of www.mydomain.co.uk would have the right to www.mydomain.uk.

Do I have this right?

The qualifying .co.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk domain name must have been registered before 29 October 2013 and have been continually renewed.

Use this tool to check if you own the rights – it will show the qualifying domain, whose owner has the right to the .uk. If there is no match, the domain is not reserved and can be bought on a first-come, first-served basis.

What are my options with this right?

Register it now:

• By registering now, you can start putting your .uk domain to use straight away. For example, you can use it for a new product category, a special marketing campaign, or as your email address.
• DON’T MISS THE DEADLINE! Any rights you may have will expire 25 June 2019, so please act before then in order to protect your .uk domain. On 1 July 2019, the domain will become available for anyone to register it, be it a competitor, a namesake or an investor. If you do not renew the qualifying domain (.co.uk, .me.uk or org.uk), you will also lose the right to the matching .uk.

Pass on your .uk domain:

• If you do not wish to keep your .uk domain, no action is needed.
• If you would like to allow someone else to buy the .uk domain name prior to the 25 June 2019 deadline (e.g. you may have been asked if you would be interested in selling the domain name), you could register the .uk domain name yourself and then transfer the domain name to the interested party.

Any extra steps to register my .uk domain?

The Right to Reserve contact check is done automatically during the registration process, so no extra steps are required.

How do the eligibility rules work?

See the registry FAQs for full details of the eligibility rules.