[thelist] Domain registration FUBAR

[Flavia Tarzwell (FayeC)]

I am here wondering if the following is common practice or just plain
wrong doing of the designer/design company (I will withold names):
In the last 6 months I have gotten two new clients with the same issue
and from different former designers/maintenance provider.
They both had no clue about how to register a domain and setup hosting
so the designer/maintenance provider offered to register the domain and
set up hosting for them.
Both registered the domains in their own names instead of the companies
they were registering the domain for.
Is this legal?
I mean....if the domain is paid by the client shouldn't the domain be
registered in the client's name??
Now, one of the clients I was able to help. I contacted the designer and
the registrar and although he accepted the transfer and all the domain
still shows as his in the registrant field....is there any extra process
to go through and change that? CIRA has been contacted about the
transfer but no changes were made so far.
The last cleint on the other hand is in deep trouble.....the former
designer is not answering to emails or phone calls and since the client
was paying his directly and he was paying the domain it seems that he
allowed the hosting to go unpaid and it is now suspended. Not only that
but since he is not replying to any contact attempted the domain is also
locked and they have no copy of the site.
What would be my next step on this case?
I have already gotten a whois of the doamin and found out who is hosting
the site. Now to see who didn't pay what......

Any tips are appreciated,

FayeC