Your website is down, customer emails are not arriving, and an old renewal notice explains why: the business’s domain name has expired.
You have 30 calendar days from expiry to apply to renew a .au domain name. After that window, it can be released for someone else to register. The website and email services on that name stop working during the grace period, so renewing before expiry avoids the disruption.
For a Melbourne workshop waiting on customers to reply to quotes, losing the email address can interrupt bookings as well as the website. Finding the registrar and renewing the name is the first job.
The 30-day window and public release come from rules 2.14.4 and 2.14.5 of auDA’s licensing rules, checked on 6 November 2026. auDA’s renewal guide, checked the same day, confirms the website and email interruption. These are the rules for .au names, including .com.au; other domain endings have their own renewal arrangements.
A .au domain name is held as a licence, and the expiry date is when that licence ends. Under rule 2.14.1 of auDA’s licensing rules, as read on 6 November 2026, you can apply to renew from 90 calendar days before the expiry date. Renewing inside that window means the name never lapses.
You will find the expiry date in your registrar account, the company your business pays for the name. It is also on the renewal invoice or notice, if one reaches you.
A domain name is the address that everything else hangs off. When it stops working, or ends up with someone else, it takes these with it:
The last point is easy to miss. If the registrar login is lost and its password reset goes to an email address on the lapsed name, getting back in becomes much harder.
Under rule 2.14.4 of auDA’s licensing rules, as read on 6 November 2026, an expired .au licence can still be renewed within 30 calendar days of its expiry date. You must still meet the eligibility requirements, agree to the licence terms, choose a new licence period and pay the renewal fee.
| When | What the rules allow | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| From 90 days before expiry | Renewal can be applied for (rule 2.14.1) | Renew now and note the next date |
| On the expiry date | The licence ends | Renew the same day if you can |
| Within 30 days after expiry | An expired licence can still be renewed (rule 2.14.4) | Find the registrar and renew |
| After 30 days | The name becomes available to the public, first come, first served (rule 2.14.5) | Check whether it is still free, and register it again if it is |
The rule references in the table were checked on 6 November 2026. The grace period lets you renew the name; it does not keep website and email services running.
If you are inside the 30 days, the work is mostly finding the right login. Start by finding which registrar holds the name, from an old invoice or your email. Then log in, or use the registrar’s account recovery if the login has been lost. Pay the renewal. Once it shows as renewed, open the website and send a test email to and from a business address to check both work.
If your domain name ends in .com rather than .au, auDA’s rules do not apply. Check your registrar’s terms for the renewal period on that name.
Under rule 2.14.5, checked on 6 November 2026, an unrenewed name is released for public registration after the 30-day window.
In practice, the business that held the name has no priority over anyone else. Any applicant who meets the .au eligibility rules can register it. Whoever does then decides where the website address and every email address on that name point.
Renew before expiry to keep services working. If the name has already expired, act within the 30-day window. Once it is released, you may be able to register it again if it is available, but recovery is not guaranteed.
Cancellation is a different route from expiry. Under rules 2.15.7 to 2.15.9 of auDA’s licensing rules, as read on 6 November 2026, when the registrant cancels a licence, they can ask their registrar to restore it within two calendar days of the registry operator cancelling it. The rules treat cancellation as occurring when the name appears on the registry operator’s Deleted Domain List. A restoration fee applies.
If you cancelled the licence, contact your registrar the same day and ask about restoration. For other cancellations, ask the registrar which recovery or review process applies. Two days is a short window.
Prevention starts with one record. Find your registrar from the renewal invoice or your registrar account, then check two things.
First, the registrant should be the business itself. Second, the contact email should be an address the business controls. A former employee’s inbox, a former agency’s address or someone’s personal email are the ones to look for. If that address belongs to someone who has gone, any notice sent to it goes unread.
Who holds the domain is one part of a bigger question about who controls the website, the hosting and the email. Our guide to who owns your website when the agency relationship ends covers the full handover list. Committees can find the club version in our piece on a community club website nobody can log into.
The fix is a reminder that does not depend on one person’s inbox. This week:
Our guide to what a website costs after launch sets out the rest of that list.
If nobody in the business owns that calendar, ask whoever supports your website whether domain renewal is inside their agreed scope, and get the answer in writing. That applies to any provider, including CJ Digital’s website support packages: read what the arrangement lists, and ask about the domain directly rather than assuming.
