£12 Nominet Transfer Fee: Obligatory?

[Federer]

To transfer ownership of a .CO.UK domain name (that is registered, for ex. at 123-Reg.co.uk), is the £12 Nominet transfer fee obligatory?

Or can the new owner set up an account at 123-Reg.co.uk for a free push? Does a "Nominet transfer of ownership" need to be initiated regardless?

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

 

[cm1975]

Pushing between registrar accounts is not transferring registrant ownership with the registry. There's the fee you cited for that, payable to the registry, to do that unless the registrar is accredited with Nominet and will offer to do for an alternative fee or gratis.


(from iPad - K)

I'm just wondering if there's a slight gap in the market? If someone is a registrar, could they offer a transfer service that would undercut Nominet? Obviously not big bucks involved, but just a thought.

 

[Retired_member41]

We do free transfers but even so people still transfer out with buyers paying nominet fee. Guess it's what people are used to doing.

You also have to show due diligence when entering the new registrant details so could be a pain if you stick to the rules. With nominet transfer they do transfer first and then run checks.