What happens if your business domain name expires?
Under ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy, registrars must send at least two reminders before a covered domain name expires and at least one more after it if the name is not renewed or deleted. After expiry the name can stop pointing to your website and email, a registrar may delete it at any time after expiry, subject to other ICANN rules, and a 30-day redemption period can follow deletion. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.
What registrars must send before and after the date
ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy covers generic top-level domain (gTLD) registrations; your registrar can say whether your domain ending is covered. It says registrars must notify the holder at least two times before a name expires, once about a month before and once about a week before. ICANN's notes say notices sent 26 to 35 days and 4 to 10 days before expiration count as compliant.
If the name is not renewed or deleted, the registrar must send at least one more notice with renewal instructions within five days after it expires.
ICANN published an updated version on 21 February 2024 to reflect changes required to implement its Registration Data Policy; the figures here are the same in both versions. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.
What stops working after the date
The policy says registrars may delete a name at any time after it expires, subject to other ICANN policies and the registrar's accreditation agreement with ICANN, which this summary does not cover. For a name deleted within eight days of expiring, the registrar must interrupt its existing DNS resolution path from expiration until deletion. For one deleted eight or more days after expiring, the interruption must last at least the last eight consecutive days the name can still be renewed. Both apply to the extent the registry permits.
In plain words, which are not ICANN's, that path connects a name to the place serving its website and email, so while it is interrupted both can stop working. If the registrar sends visitors to a page while the name is still renewable, the policy says that page must conspicuously say the registration is expired and give renewal instructions.
How long you have to get the name back
The policy says the holder must be allowed to renew from expiration through the interruption period, and the registrar must then restore the path immediately or as soon as is commercially reasonable. Its text sets no number of days a registrar must keep an expired name renewable, so your time depends on when your registrar deletes it.
If the name is deleted, every gTLD registry except sponsored ones must offer a 30-day Redemption Grace Period right after deletion. During it, the registrar that deleted the name must let the former holder redeem it, and the registry must disable the name's DNS resolution and block transfers. Registrars must also make their renewal, post-expiration renewal (if different) and redemption fees reasonably available, and clearly display them on their websites if they use one; the policy does not set those fees.
The risk, and what to do about it
The policy describes renewing before deletion and restoring during the 30-day period, and no step after that. A name finally released may be open for anyone to register, and getting it back could be difficult. ICANN's notes also list a best practice recommended for registrars, not a requirement: advise holders to give a secondary email address not tied to the domain itself, so reminders can still arrive if the name lapses.
- Check the expiry date in your registrar account now, turn on auto-renew with a current card, and send reminders to an address more than one person reads. The related answer on who should own your domain name covers renewal and access.
- If the date has passed, contact your registrar the same day and ask whether the name can still be renewed and what the post-expiration fees are.
- Treat a renewal notice from a company you do not use as unconfirmed. The related answer on spotting a fake renewal notice explains how to check.
Sources
- ICANN, "Expired Registration Recovery Policy" (updated 21 February 2024)
- ICANN, "Expired Registration Recovery Policy" (earlier version)
Related answers
- Who should own your business's domain name?
- How do you spot a fake domain or website renewal notice?
- What is the difference between a domain, hosting and a website, and how do you find out who hosts yours?
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