How can I obtain a domain from another owner?

If you wish to obtain a domain name from another owner, the best thing you can do is to contact the current owner of the domain name. A domain name is already registered if you see the text "Transfer" or "Internal Pull" in the domainchecker. A domain name is free when it shows "Choose".

1. Looking up contact details
In most cases you can find more information about the owner of a domain name by performing a WHOIS search on the domain name. WHOIS comes from the two words "Who Is". In the WHOIS database the contact details of a domain name are stored. Most of the time it also shows the name and contact details of the owner or registrant of the domain name, the registrar and other technical information.

You can look up the WHOIS information in various places:

• By entering a domain name in our WHOIS look-up tool.
• By clicking the blue link after a query in our domainchecker.
• Via the registry of a specific tld, such as the website of SIDN for .nl domainnames.

2. Contacting the owner
When you have found the contact details of the owner of a domain name in the WHOIS information, you can contact them with your question or offer. Some registrars have partnered with a third-party to do this for you. We cannot provide you with the contact details of customers to contact the owner of a domain name.

3. Secure transfer
After both sides reach an agreement, you can transfer the domain name. To run as little risk as possible with transferring payment for a domain you can use an escrow service. This is an intermediary company that can take care of a safe transfer of a domain name with the certainty that the money will only be paid to the seller if the domain name is transferred succesfully. A well known international escrow website is Escrow.com.

You can transfer a domain name with an autorisationcode. This code is also called an authcode, epp-code or transfercode. After you have received the autorisationcode from the owner you can transfer the domain name. You can do this by entering the code during the order process. The transfer of for example a .nl domain will be instant, for other domain extensions it depends on the extension in question.

Please note: after you have transferred the domain name to your account with the autorisationcode, it is important to change the registrant details to your own (company)name. You can do this by changing the contact details of the domain name. The reason this is important is because the registrant of a domain name in the contact details has the legal right to the domain name.