Claiming Domain Unused in Years?

  • journeytomybestselfblog · Member ·

    Is there a way to claim a domain name if someone has not used it in years – and never really used it back then?

    I could not see contact information for the current owner..

    Thanks!

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • classicsuper · Member ·

    Hi journeytomybestselfblog,

    I’m afraid the answer is no. So long as a domain is registered to someone, that domain is exclusively reserved for that person/company for as long as they keep paying for that domain’s renewal fees.

    If the domain registrant (owner) lets the domain expire for whatever reason, then the domain will go into a grace period during which time the previous owner could still get it back. If the grace period expires without the previous owner claiming it, the registrar (company that registered the domain name on behalf of the end user), can either put it up for auction or release it back into the public pool of domain names so that other people can register it for themselves (this varies from registrar to registrar). In all, there is no certain way to know when a domain name may be back into the public pool. Your best chance is to learn the domain’s expiration date, hope that the current owner lets it expire and then keep checking often to see if it becomes available for registration.

    You say that you cannot see the current owner information for the domain, this probably means that the owner is using some kind of privacy proxy service to “hide” their info. Depending on who the proxy service is, if you send an email to the registrant or admin email address in the whois record, they may forward that to the actual owner. This is a very long shot though :/

    I hope this helps you.

    Cheers,

  • journeytomybestselfblog · Member ·

    Does that even apply for .wordpress.com sites?

  • timethief · Member ·

    Does that even apply for .wordpress.com sites?

    This does apply. There is no expiration date on .wordpress.com blogs unused, reserved or otherwise. If there is no contact information or you do not get a response to a contact form submission or to a comment on the site, Staff will not breach the privacy policy and provide you with an email address.
    https://en.support.wordpress.com/private-user-data/
    https://en.support.wordpress.com/private-information/

    You can register another .wordpress.com blog http://en.support.wordpress.com/register-a-blog/

    Then if you wish to you can register a domain via a domain mapping upgrade because it does not matter what the underlying .wordpress.com address is when you are domain mapping.
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/

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