You are not, strictly speaking, the owner of a domain name, you simply have a right to use it, which translates into an annual fee that can be renewed indefinitely or terminated in case of infringement. As soon as you no longer pay the annual fee required to maintain it, and therefore its renewal, the domain name will expire and fall back into the public domain.
However, this deletion is not automatic, because the day after its expiry period, the domain name will go through 3 successive phases before falling back into the public domain.
Find in this “5 minutes to understand” document, available for download on the Nameshield’s website, the different phases in the life of a domain name.
