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Each .ee domain has an expiry date - as anyone who has ever registered a domain will know. While the vast majority of .ee domains are registered for one year, there are also those domain owners who register their domain for ten years at a time. Therefore, if you have a long-term plan for your domain, register it for as long as possible at once, as this will mean less hassle.

What is the deletion procedure, and how is the domain owner informed?

Firstly, registrars generally inform domain owners at least one or two months in advance that the expiry date of their domain is approaching and it is time to extend it. This is the first chance to "save" your domain. If you do nothing during this period, the domain will expire. However, the ownership status of the domain will not change for another 45 days.

On the second day after the domain expires, the registry (the Estonian Internet Foundation) will send a message to both the domain registrant and their administrative contact informing them that the domain has expired and that the domain owner has 43 days left to renew the registration before the domain is permanently deleted and put up for auction.

Of these 45 days, the domain will be accessible for 15 days, and for the remaining 30 days, the domain will be removed from the zone, i.e., it will no longer be accessible. If not sooner, then within the remaining 30 days, the domain owner should clearly notice that something is not right with the domain. If no action is taken during this period, the domain will be put up for auction and will be available for anyone else to register.

What falls below the line? It is crucial that the information sent by the registrar and the registry reaches the correct and functioning e-mail address of the person concerned. If the owner's e-mail address or the administrative contact e-mail address linked to the domain is not renewed and the actual user of the domain is unaware of the expiry date, the domain may no longer function and will be put up for domain auction.

You can easily check on our website if your domain's contact details are correct - just enter the domain name in the search field above and check it out!