The domain was an asset of an incorporated legal entity (BDGE Ltd). Any undisposed assets remaining after a company ceases to exist become the property of the Crown (how d'ya think they got so rich in the first place - basically they've got enough space to be able to say "We'll have that if you don't want it any more" to *everything* - land, titles, you name it).

It's £500 minimum and many, many months to get it back from the Crown, so any bill less than that from an accountant who's prepared to confirm it was transferred (as an asset) to you *prior* to the company closing is worth it.

I'm going through a similar process with W*b*a*t*c right now - transferring all domains in the *.uk TLD from there to NVC before the old company is finally struck off the register.

It's a PITA if you don't know about it in advance, I grant you, but it's not really Nominet's fault that the law is inconvenient.
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simon