dotvitals

The domain is scheduled for deletion

CriticalConfirmeddomain.rdap.pending-delete

What this check looks for

The redemption window has closed and the registry has queued the domain for release — usually about five days. It can no longer be restored by the previous owner, and when it drops anyone can register it.

Why it matters

This is the end of the lifecycle. Whoever registers the name next receives every visitor, every password reset and every piece of mail still addressed to it, and can obtain valid certificates for it. Domains that were once in use are bought precisely for that.

When the check passes, your report says: “The registry holds the domain with no release scheduled”.

What it costs your score

When this check fails it removes 90 points from your Domain registration score, before the status, confidence and repeat multipliers are applied. Domain registration carries a weight of 5 in the overall score.

It shares the domain.expiry family ceiling of 90 points: however many findings that family produces, together they cannot remove more than that from Domain registration. One underlying problem showing up in several places is still one problem.

Severity
critical
Default confidence
confirmed
Status when triggered
fail
Deduction
90 points
Family cap
domain.expiry · 90
Category
Domain registration
Module
Domain rdap
Fix owned by
registrar
In the ruleset since
2026.09

How the whole score is calculated

How to fix it

Decide now whether you are trying to recover the name or moving off it, and act on that today.

The domain is released within days and cannot be restored by you at any price.

  1. If the name matters, engage a backorder or drop-catch service immediately. It is a competitive auction at the moment of release, not a registration.

  2. In parallel, treat the name as compromised from the drop date: move mail to a domain you control, revoke anything that authenticates against it, and change any account whose recovery address is at this domain.

  3. Check whether the registrant contact was still correct — a domain reaching pendingDelete almost always means the expiry notices went somewhere nobody reads.

How to confirm it worked

  • Re-run this scan and confirm the pendingDelete status is gone and the domain is registered to you with a future expiry date.

A named slot like ‹domain› — and the braces left in the configuration below — is filled in with your own values when this rule appears on a report.

Technical detail

The registry reports the status pendingDelete (RFC 3915). The redemption grace period has already passed, so a restore is no longer available at any price.

The name is released at the end of this window. For sought-after names, drop-catch services compete for the moment of release, so simply waiting and registering it manually is unlikely to work.

If this domain is still in use anywhere — mail routing, SSO, API callbacks, published links — plan for it to be in someone else's hands shortly.

Standards and references

Test this on your domain

Run the check that produces this finding, on its own, against any domain.

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