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Legal entity types and descriptions

Introduction

This page is designed to help you understand the different types of legal body that we recognise and which are listed in the WHOIS, register and so on.

When registering a domain name it is important that you fully explain who the registrant is as this will help ensure that their name stays registered to them and is dealt with properly.

It also affects whether we are prepared to allow the user to opt-out of having their address shown on the WHOIS because of the rules for this.

The different types

On our database, we recognise 16 types of registrant which are listed on the registrant types page. Some of these are very rare. In the registrar systems these have codes (like IND for 'UK Individual'). If you are not a registrar, do not worry about these codes as all our public systems translate them for you.

For the purposes of the register, we divide the categories into UK registrants and non-UK registrants. For most purposes we do not discriminate between them (although, for example, the rules for .net.uk and .ltd.uk require some UK presence). In this case, we also class the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man as 'non-UK'.

UK People and legal bodies recognised by the .uk register
Brief Description	More information	Code
UK Individual	A UK citizen, not trading.	IND
UK Sole Trader	A person who is in business on their own, but not using a company etc to trade through.	STRA
UK Partnership	Where two or more people carry on business together with a view to profit - but do not have a company or other body with separate legal stature. Includes both partnerships at English law (which are not separate legal bodies) and Scottish law partnerships (which can be) but not Limited Liability partnerships.	PTNR
UK Limited Company	Private Limited Companies (which usually use 'Limited' or 'Ltd' in their names, or the Welsh 'cyfyngedig' or 'cyf') and which will be on the 'Register of Companies' - which generally means that they are registered at Companies House or its Scottish or Northern Irish counterparts. Limited Companies are treated in law as having their own legal 'personality' (see below).	LTD
UK Public Limited Companies	These are very similar to Private Limited companies and will be registered in the same place. They also are separate legal people. They generally use 'Public Limited Company' or 'Plc' in their name (or the Welsh 'cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus'). The legal differences between a Plc and Ltd do not usually matter to us (but can matter for .ltd.uk and .plc.uk registrations).	PLC
UK Limited Liability Partnership	A special form of partnership where the partnership itself has a spearate legal personality, a bit like a Limited Company. They use 'Limited Liability Partnership' or 'LLP' after their name (or Welsh 'partneriaeth atebolrwydd cyfngedig' or 'pac') and will be registered with Companies House (or equivalent).	LLP
UK Industrial and Provident Societies	There are a number of organisations that fit into this category, such as 'Friendly Societies', 'Credit Unions' (Welsh = undeb credyd), various working men's clubs, and co-operatives. The rules for these can be difficult. The Financial Services Authority, which holds the English register has more information.	IP
UK Schools	Primary or Secondary education establishments registered with the appropriate body for their part of the UK.	SCH
UK Registered Charity	A charity registered with the Charity Commission, Scottish Charity Commission or equivalent. A charity does not by itself have a separate legal existence - it will usually be something else too, like a limited company or run by trustees (who may UK individuals or Foreign Individuals). If the charity is run by trustees, it is better to use this category. If it is a company or other structure, you can chose which one to use.	RCHAR
UK Government	A national, regional or local government body, quango or public authority (but must be UK, as with all the other types in this category). This includes Agencies, 'Department of ..', Councils, and many bodies with the word 'Authority' in their names. The various government bodies are set up in different ways, but most will have separate legal existence.	GOV
UK Corporation by Royal Charter	There are some organisations which are created by a charter from the Queen - they have separate legal existence. The most famous is probably the BBC, but many Universities and professional bodies will also have Royal Charters.	CRC
UK Statutory Body	It is also possible for an organisation to be created by an Act of Parliament. Many universities and regulators fall into this category.	STAT
UK - All others	Covers any UK group not listed above, such as clubs, associations, guilds of the City of London etc.	OTHER

Non-UK people and legal bodies recognised by the .uk register
Brief Description	More Information	Automaton Code
Non-UK Individual	Any non-trading person who is not a UK citizen	FIND
Foreign Corporation	Any non-UK body with its own legal existence under the laws of its home country. Examples include companies from the US (Inc.) or European Companies (GmBH, SA, SARL, CE).	FCORP
Other Foreign Registrant	A non-UK registrant that does not fit into the FIND or FCORP categories.	FOTHER

Some incorrect registrant types - to be avoided
Type	Reason
Pets	We do get asked about this. Pets are regarded as property and cannot enter into domain name contracts.
Other domain names	People often want to register a domain to another domain - i.e. give the registrant as 'internet.co.uk'. If this is a trading name, it should go in the "trading as" field and the "registrant" or "for" field should be used for the actual legal entity involved - usually a company, sole trader or individual.
Joint names	We discourage joint registrations, because it can be complicated to deal with two parties and obtain two sets of authorisation each time.
Buildings	Buildings are just land and cannot enter into contracts. Usually if a building name is given, it is a trading name of a business and the real business name should be given instead.

Separate legal entity

Although it may seem bizarre, in law there is the idea that there are "natural persons" (meaning "humans") and "legal persons" (meaning any legal construct that is deemed to have its own existence and individual personality). This means that if a body corporate (like a Limited Company) owns something, it really is the company that owns it (and can sell it) and not the members, shareholders and so on. They simply own the company.

Like normal people bodies corporate can run out of money, and for companies this means that they are put into liquidation (the company equivalent of bankruptcy) or one of the other special states for failing businesses.

Also like people, they can legally 'die' although this usually is called 'liquidation', 'winding-up' or 'dissolution'. When this happens they cease to exist. Unlike a person, they do not pass their property by a will.

In the same way that the property of a dead person cannot simply be taken over by someone with the same name, a domain name registered to a dissolved company does not automatically go to another company which has some links with it. We have a procedure for dealing with those cases.