My old business partner has left me somewhat in a predicament at the moment.
He signed up originally for a .co.uk and we have been merrily running a webstore on it for the past couple of years.

We also own the .net version of the same site but we use this for other purposes.

Long story short:
* Business partner has left
* Nominet has contacted us today saying they are effectively cancelling the WhoIs opt out and that we have to use a new domain name as we cannot trade on the .co.uk

Help... not done anything like this before, and we run quite a large store online- what do we have to do?
Can Nominet cancel the domain name (the .co.uk one) OR what are they legally entitled to do - can we not just leave everything as is or do we HAVE to move it to the .net?

I can setup the basics on the store on the .net and reimport I think everything again, but the co.uk has all of the emails, the backlinks etc.. so it is causing a massive problem for us today.

Or - can we simply forward the .co.uk site to our .net and how could we set this up - as we will need everything from the .co.uk site on the .net first won't we?

Cheers

Private registration is for non-trading individuals. The whois opt out is just for hiding your address. You still will own the domain. It just means that anyone can see your address now. I am pretty sure you have nothing to worry about.

Private registration is for non-trading individuals. The whois opt out is just for hiding your address. You still will own the domain. It just means that anyone can see your address now. I am pretty sure you have nothing to worry about.

How do we change the details into my name now though mate?
Do I have to do this through Nominet?

When you signed up, you choose not to disclose your address. If you are a business you are not allowed to opt out of the WHOIS.

they are effectively cancelling the WhoIs opt out
You have nothing to worry about on this score... Basically, your hidden address is now visible to everyone who choose to do a domain lookup of your website.

and that we have to use a new domain name as we cannot trade on the .co.uk
This is complete nonsense!

Are you absolutely sure that the phone call originated from Nominet and not someone who fancy their chances in wanting that domain name to expire? Smells like a scam to me.

Try phoning them to clear this problem up.

How do we change the details into my name now though mate?
Do I have to do this through Nominet?
No. Ideally, it should be with the company that registered it on your behalf. If you can't remember who they are then do a whois look up (http://www.nominet.org.uk/other/whois/) of your domain name and this information should give you a clue to who did it. From that, you need to contact them. They will then update it on your behalf if you can't already do it via their website.

How do we change the details into my name now though mate?
Do I have to do this through Nominet?

Your registrar should be able to help you. If not, just login to your nominet account (if you have one) and change it there. If that fails, just call nominet. I am pretty sure all they are going to do is unhide your whois automatically. Thats all, so you could just ignore the email but as you run a business off it, you'd be best off double checking with them. Your registrar should be your first point of call though.