Co.uk Registry Data Quality Update

If you have registered a UK domain with us, or transferred your existing domain to us, then you might receive an email from us asking you to confirm your contact details.

First off this is not a scam!

We are working with Nominet, the UK domain registry, to improve the quality of data related to domain names registered with ourselves.

If you have registered a .com domain name with us you’ll get an annual whois reminder email – the UK domain email is quite similar.

In common with a lot of the domain registries, Nominet keeps an eye on their registrant database to make sure that the data is as accurate as it can be.

At the moment, however, there is no simple way for either you, the registrant, or us, the registrar, to make a change to the “registrant name” on a UK domain name. So there are quite a few domain names out there that probably have inaccuracies.

For example you might have filled in the “organisation” field accidentally when registering a personal domain name, or maybe you put in a trading name instead of your own name or your company name.

In other cases a domain might be registered to an entity that no longer exists.

In some cases the name associated with the domain name could have pretty blatantly bad data eg. extra characters or other oddities

So if you have a UK domain name and you get an email from us please do not panic. Simply reply to the email to confirm who the domain(s) should be registered to and our sales team will make the necessary updates on your behalf.

NB: We will need to make the updates for you. You cannot make the changes yourself via your Blacknight control panel.

Bear in mind that if your name is “John Doe” and you trade as “Widget Services” the registrant should be “John Doe” and not “Widget Services”. If, however, you have a limited company then it can and should be the domain registrant.

Nominet’s registration services team have provided us with a clarification on how this works which I’m including below. The text refers to a “account-name” and several other fields that are only visible to us ie. they do NOT refer to anything on your Blacknight control panel.

Registrations of .uk domain names

All .uk domain name registrations must be registered to a legal, identifiable entity such as an individual or limited company. This is outlined in our Terms and Conditions, clause 4, 16 and 17.
http://www.nominet.org.uk/registrants/aboutdomainnames/legal/terms/

The registrant is the company or individual whom the domain name is registered on behalf of. This must contain at least 4 or more characters and of these 3 or more must be letters.

Guidelines for correct registrations

Limited, Plc, LLP, IP
In the case of a UK company – Limited Company, Public Limited Company, Limited Liability Partnership or Industrial Provident – you should enter the registered name of the company or partnership in the ‘account-name’ field.
The account address is mandatory in all cases. Postcode fields should always be entered for UK addresses, and postcode syntax checks are made. Always enter a postal town.

If the registrant also has a trading name, you should enter it in the ‘trad-name’ field.  You do not need to enter a trading name if they do not have one.
You should enter the registrant’s Companies House Registration Number in the ‘co-no’ field.

Individual, Sole trader and Foreign Individual
In the case of an individual, or a sole trader you should put the real name of the person in the ‘account-name’ field. A pseudonym or trading name alone is not sufficient. If the registration is made for an individual with a pseudonym, the preferred format is real name aka pseudonym.
You are advised to fill in the ‘trad-name’ if the registrant is a sole trader. It may be a breach of the Business Names Act for a sole trader to hide behind a trading name without disclosing his or her own name.
You do not need to fill in the ‘co-no’ field.
If the registrant type is IND or FIND then the ‘opt-out’ field can be set to ‘y’ if so desired.  This means that the registrants address details will not be displayed on our WHOIS service.  This field must be set to ‘n’ for all other registrant types.

Partnership
In the case of a partnership, you should enter the names of all the partners in the ‘account name’ field. If the partnership consists of more than 2 partners, enter the names of at least one of the partners followed by the words “and others” or “and partners” in the account name field.

School
If the registrant type is set to SCH school you should enter the DfES UK School number in the ‘co-no’ field. This is required irrespective of the second level domain when the type is set to SCH.

Registered Charity
With a registered charity you should enter the registered name of this charity in the ‘account-name’ field.
If the registrant also has a trading name, you should enter it in the ‘trad-name’ field.
You should enter the registrant’s Registered Charity Number in the ‘co-no’ field.

Non-UK Corporation
In the case of a non-UK corporation you need to put the name of the corporation in the ‘account-name’ field. FCORP should be used for a foreign registered company or business, whereas FOTHER would be the correct registrant type for a school or institution.
If the registrant has a trading name you should put it in the ‘trad-name’ field.
You do not need to put a registered Company Number in the ‘co-no’ field for a foreign company.

Non-UK Individuals
If the registrant is an entity that does not fit into any of the other categories, enter the name of the entity in the ‘account-name’ field.  FOTHER would be the correct registrant type for a non-UK school or institution.
If the registrant has a trading name you should put it in the ‘trad-name’ field.

If you have any questions please let us know.