Purchasing a domain direct from the owner

[Allen]

I have bought many domain names from registrars and dealt with transferring domain names from one registrar to another, however I haven't had to deal with this before and need a bit of quick advice please.

I work for a company who is going through a rebrand and we have successfully negotiated the purchase of a domain name from another company. I have tried to search for how to complete this task, but my Google-fu is lacking today and I can only find information related to what I have already done above, not this exact situation.

Does any have any experience, or knowledge, on what needs to be done to transfer a domain from one owner to another? Should I just contact our registrar and ask them for assistance?

Thanks in advance!

[scaryjim]

I don't think there is any standard for doing this, tbh - I think you'll just need to trust the current owner to transfer the domain to you as agreed. You'll probably need to provide them with some of your registrar's details so they can tag the domain appropriately etc.

Definitely get your registrar involved, and negotiate with the owner as to who's responsible for making sure the transfer completes properly: you don't want to be having that conversation after something goes wrong Get everything in writing.

[Saracen]

That, IMHO. ^^^^

My experience is much the same as Allen's, and I'm almost as interested in anyone's practical experience of doing this as Allen.

[Allen]

We already have confirmation from the company's solicitor that they have agreed to the sale. I also contacted our registrar who suggested the following:

Order the transfer through their website.
This automatically emails the domain owner.
The domain owner changes the IPS tag on the domain to our registrar.
The domain is automagically transferred to us.

I can't believe it's that simple (same as a normal domain transfer from one registrar to another, just have to rely on the seller to change the IPS tag), so I will keep you updated if there's any changes to the process.

[peterb]

One important bit missing, pay the other party (or receive payment if you are the seller!)

But if the solicitors are involved, Id expect them to draw up a contract covering the transfer etc.

[Allen]

Hah, yeah, as the sysadmin I don't get involved in the monies but well worth noting for everyone else!

[AGTDenton]

This is one thought I had - it may only add confusion.

But I would have tried to sign up to the existing registrar that the domain is currently with. Give him the account name or ID, then ask him to get the domain transferred to that new account without changing registrars at this point. That way you would at least take ownership of it quicker. Then once its assigned to your account, you can transfer it to a new registrar or do whatever you want more freely without the original owners being part of the puzzle.

[mikerr]

Solicitors involved so that takes care of the "trust"/money side, o
otherwise I'd have suggested sedo.com as all my sales have been done through them and they take care of the transfer/money.

[Allen]

Turns out there was rather an important part missed, one that is normally done by the seller, and that's changing the domain registrant information with Nominet. Managed to speak with Nominet and do it myself so all good now, but could've ended up with a domain with another company listed as the registrant...