The "positive renewals" system requires tag holders to notify Nominet only of the domain names that they do wish to renew on behalf of their customers and was a shift from a "negative renewals" system that required them to detag any domain names that they did not want to renew.

1.  We will send the tag holder a three month advance warning of domain names on their tag that are due to be renewed.  For example, a list of domain names due to expire in February 2006 will be sent to you on 1st November 2005.

All tag holders are opted into this system, so that everyone receives advance notice of the domain names on their tag that are due to expire.  If you wish to opt out of this email, unsubscribe details are provided in the footer of the email we send you.  You can also submit a list request by expiry month to the Automaton to return a list of domain names due to expire.

2. Domain names can be renewed up to six months before the expiry date. The current tag holder can renew a domain name (on behalf of the registrant) during this renewal period by sending a PGP signed message to the Automaton. On receipt of a positive renewal request the expiry date will be wound forward two years.

3. A registrant can renew their domain name directly, via a web interface, at the non-discounted rate.

4. Renewal will extend the expiry date by two years.

5. We will not normally contact registrants prior to the expiry date except where the domain name is not associated with a valid tag or where the 'recur-bill' field is set to "bc" (bill customer). In these cases we  will issue a 'notice of renewal' advance warning to the registrant, by email, between 60 and 30 days before the expiry date.  If a domain name is marked as 'bc' less than 60 days before the expiry date, we will issue a 'notice of renewal' advance warning to the registrant immediately.

6. If we have not received a positive renewal request from the tag holder when the expiry date for a domain name is reached, we will send out an email renewal reminder to the registrant.  This reminds the registrant that the domain name is due for renewal and advises them to contact their tag holder.

7. If the domain name has not been renewed seven days later, a pro forma invoice will be sent to the registrant by post and email.  All pro forma invoices will be sent by post to the Registrant contact fields and, where these do not appear, to the Admin contact fields.  An email notice will be sent to all email addresses provided.

The pro forma invoice will advise the registrant that they are likely to receive a preferential rate if they renew through their tag holder.  We will supply your contact details and the direct renewal URL.  We will also warn the registrant that you may have renewed the domain name while the notice was in transit.

8. If we do not receive payment of the pro forma invoice within 30 days of expiry, or a positive renewal request from the tag holder, we will suspend the domain name. "Suspended" means that the DNS servers will not be entered into the .UK zone file, however they will be maintained in the Nominet register and reinstated at the next zone rebuild, if the domain name registrant pays the outstanding fee or the current tag holder submits a positive renewal request. The status will be clear from a WHOIS query (see below).

9. The suspension of a domain name will not affect a tag holder's ability to execute all normal operations including submitting a renewal request or moving the domain name to an alternative tag. However, if Nominet is asked to make a change to a domain name, Nominet will not transfer a domain name or move it to another tag until any outstanding registration or renewal fees have been paid.

10. If payment is made whilst the domain name is suspended the expiry date will move forward two years from the previous expiry date (late renewal will not advance the next expiry date) and the suspension will be lifted.

11. In the absence of a renewal, 60 days after suspension the domain name will be cancelled. We will not notify the registrant but we will notify the tag holder after cancellation.

12. Once we have received a positive renewal request it will not be possible to cancel the renewal. No credit notes will be issued.

13. If the current tag holder performs the renewal, that tag holder will be invoiced for renewal, and no other, irrespective of subsequent tag changes.

14. If invoices for renewals remain unpaid beyond credit terms, the expiry date will be wound back two years and no credit note will be issued.  If, as a consequence, the domain name has expired, we will send out a pro forma invoice and a suspension notice via post and email to the registrant. For payment terms, see paragraph 8.

15. The Automaton template includes a field called auto-bill.  This field is used to indicate how many days before expiry the tag holder wishes to renew a domain name.  You can automatically renew a domain name by setting the auto-bill field in the register to a value (between 1 and 182, as per the positive renewal window) to indicate the number of days prior to expiry that you wish to renew the domain name. If a value has been set in the auto-bill field, when the relevant point in time arrives, we will raise an invoice in the usual manner that you may not cancel (i.e. no credit notes). This field will be similar to the 'recur-bill' field, in that it will default to 'off' and will be set to 'off' on tag change.

The auto-bill field cannot be set retrospectively, so the value added to the field must be in the future.  The value in the field must be added at least one clear day in advance of the day given as the field value.  So, if you want to set the value to 10 (that is auto-bill 10 days before expiry), you can add the field value up to midnight on day 12 (that is 12 days before expiry).  In this example, if a domain name is due to expire on the 20th of the month and you want to add a field value of 10, it would be possible to add this field value up until midnight on the 8th of the month.  If you do not have sufficient time to add an auto-bill field before the domain name expires, you can always submit a renewal request.

16. If tag holders do not wish to renew a domain, they should simply take no action to positively renew it. We will not generate an invoice to you for the domain name. Therefore it will not be necessary to detag the domain name.

Under the positive renewal system you should not detag a domain name to prevent its renewal.  Domain names will lapse naturally.  The detag facility will continue allow a tag holder to indicate a permanent cessation of their contractual relationship with the registrant in respect of the domain name.

If a tag holder does not submit a positive renewal request as described in the process above the registrant will be given the opportunity to renew directly.  At any point until the domain name is cancelled you can submit a positive renewal request.  So, if receipt of a direct invoice causes a customer to contact you to confirm that they wish to renew, you should simply submit a positive renewal request for the relevant domain name.

If a domain name is detagged we will still invoice the registrant directly but the tag holder will no longer be able to submit a positive renewal request.  We will only accept the registrant's authority to retag the domain name, with no exceptions.  All retags will be treated as a tag change and we will levy a charge to the registrant for making a tag change in the normal manner.  Therefore you should be particularly careful not to detag domain names which you feel your customer may not wish to renew.  Instead they should simply be left unrenewed.

WHOIS
The expiry date for a domain will be available via the WHOIS service. In addition, the registration status for a domain name will be shown.  Details can be found in the renewals FAQ

If you have any queries about the positive renewals procedure, please send your enquiry to support@nominet.org.uk with the subject line "positive renewals".