There are evidently some issues with the character transfer system in Ultima Online at present:

We are aware of an issue with character transfer. In order to fix this issue we are going to turn it off for the time being at 1 pm ET 5/1/14. We will keep you informed of our progress and will get it turned back on as soon as possible.

We are sorry for the horrible timing and appreciate your patience.

UO Team

So that feature is going to be out of order for a spell.