Help with Domain name purchase and rental

[Newbie01]

Hi,

I am new to this to I apologise if this is in the wrong area.

My partner has share in a Ltd company (10%), the other two directors have 45% each. One of the directors has purchased the domain name hometeam.co.uk for a fee of $5000 and has decided (without consultation) to rebrand the website with the new domain (was previously a uk.com).

He has decided that the company will rent the the co.uk site from him for £300 per month.

There is no domain rental agreement in place; he's just set up a standing order from the account.

My partner thinks this is excessive and wanted some advice.

She has not seen any documents to show how much the co.uk site was purchased for and cannot find it anywhere online.

Can anyone offer any advice on where to find this and also if £300 a month is realistic or excessive.

 

[martin-s]

.co.uk is a step up from .uk.com

The price paid for the name is a bit high

£300/mo is excessively high, both in general and versus the purchase price.

Why is the company not just reimbursing the purchase expense? £3,300 or thereabouts.

 

[martin-s]

I see Nokta have a page listing that domain for sale:
http://www.noktadomains.com/buydomain/HomeTeam.co.uk

They do price their names high, so there's a good chance the $5k was paid.

 

[Newbie01]

.co.uk is a step up from .uk.com

The price paid for the name is a bit high

£300/mo is excessively high, both in general and versus the purchase price.

Why is the company not just reimbursing the purchase expense? £3,300 or thereabouts.

He will not allow them to do this which for some reason. He seems to think if the company grows it will be more valuable and therefore he can charge more rent each month.

 

[Newbie01]

Where can I obtain a fair appraisal of a monthly rent? Sorry if I appear dim, I have just no idea on this.

 

[OhNoNotHim]

He will not allow them to do this which for some reason. He seems to think if the company grows it will be more valuable and therefore he can charge more rent each month.

I don't know the complete ins and outs but part of being a Director of a Ltd company means you have responsibilities towards the company and that includes not hijacking a company opportunity for personal gain.

Have a look at #3, #4 and #5 on http://www.lawdonut.co.uk/law/owner...rs/your-responsibilities-as-a-director-faqs#3

 

[Newbie01]

I don't know the complete ins and outs but part of being a Director of a Ltd company means you have responsibilities towards the company and that includes hijacking a company opportunity for personal gain.

Have a look at #3, #4 and #5 on http://www.lawdonut.co.uk/law/owner...rs/your-responsibilities-as-a-director-faqs#3

Thank you; I will have a look at this.

 

[orchardapple]

Who purchased the domain name? the LTD or the Director personally?

 

[max99x]

Seems he's decided to buy it purely to make some additional money on the side, he should be happy with the company paying the price he paid (when he has proof of that price) if not then his intentions are not right for the company and I'd be wary!

 

[Adam H]

Looks like a personal registration : http://www.whois.com/whois/hometeam.co.uk

Think I prefer the old design over the new one............... you'd think the old one would at least redirect to the new one so show some commitment to the new domain......sorry off topic

http://www.hometeamuk.com
http://www.hometeam.co.uk

 

[Newbie01]

Who purchased the domain name? the LTD or the Director personally?

One of the directors. There are 3 in total.

 

[Adam H]

Ha , Started redirecting now, literally less than a minute after posting above.

 

[OhNoNotHim]

Ha , Started redirecting now, literally less than a minute after posting above.

I tried this morning before posting and it redirected fine then.

 

[Adam H]

I tried this morning before posting and it redirected fine then.

I could visit the old site just fine, had a good look around. Wasnt cached either as ive never visited that site before.................Window is still open in my browser so got a screenshot. Maybe propagating still if it was only recently changed in the last day or so .

 

[max99x]

Looks like a personal registration : http://www.whois.com/whois/hometeam.co.uk

Think I prefer the old design over the new one............... you'd think the old one would at least redirect to the new one so show some commitment to the new domain......sorry off topic

http://www.hometeamuk.com
http://www.hometeam.co.uk

I believe it was hometeam.uk.com not hometeamuk.com

 

[Adam H]

I believe it was hometeam.uk.com not hometeamuk.com

Unless they offer the same services, same logo and same contact details it wasnt

 

[gimpydog]

Where can I obtain a fair appraisal of a monthly rent? Sorry if I appear dim, I have just no idea on this.

The sale price looks OK for a retail sale from Nokta.

By Nokta standards, the lease price looks very high, but maybe the site hosting/design/maintenance is included or it is lease-to-buy?

http://www.noktadomains.com/searchdomain.html?sort=leasing_desc&priceChoice=2&tlds=2

 

[Newbie01]

Thanks to everyone for your responses.

 

[accelerator]

Can anyone offer any advice on where to find this and also if £300 a month is realistic or excessive.

Most often, a domain name sale is a private transaction. The sale price only becomes publicly available if one of the parties decides to report it.

Whilst I don't like to comment on how people run their business affairs I will give my opinion on how domain names should be handled. Domain names should be regarded as a business asset. That means it should be registered in the name of the business, and on the books of the business. The problem is that often domain names can get registered by individuals or web designers on behalf of the business. This means that legally the business does not have ownership of the domain, someone else does. That is a risk to the business and any shareholders in the business.

Rgds

 

[Edwin]

If one shareholder with sub-50% of shareholding is trying to do something against the interests of the company, the other shareholders should be able to block their action as long as they are in agreement to do so. Of course, that is dependent on the "something" being an activity that the shareholders get to have input into in the first place.