Smart-home account transfer

You are partway through the one-time handover. The appendix landing sets out the four steps and their order; this page is the engine room of the third one — every account-bearing device in the house, vendor by vendor, with each process taken from that vendor’s own documentation. A house full of connected equipment is only worth having if it is yours, and a sale that ignores that leaves a buyer with a thermostat someone else can adjust and a seller still receiving doorbell alerts from a house they no longer own.

Every login, WiFi password, lock code and account credential referenced below is on the sealed sheet, never on a page:

Every account login, WiFi password, and lock/keypad code referenced on this pageSealed credentials sheet

The principle: order of operations

Within this step the order matters more than any individual task, because these systems depend on each other. Get it right and the accounts take an afternoon; get it wrong and you will be re-pairing devices for two weeks.

1. Start the slow one first. The Tesla energy transfer is paperwork and involves a recorded deed, so it begins before the house is even listed and finishes weeks after closing. Everything else is same-day.
2. Leave the WiFi exactly as it is until the very end. Every device in this house — thermostat, lock, doorbell, garage, sprinklers, chargers, Tesla monitoring — is joined to the house WiFi by name and password. Change either one early and you will have to re-onboard every device by hand. The seller hands the existing network name and password over on the credentials sheet; they stay unchanged through the whole transfer.
3. Transfer the network console before you transfer anything else that lives on it. Ownership of the UniFi controller is the umbrella; do it while the network is untouched and working.
4. Then work vendor by vendor down the table below. Each one is independent of the others once the network is settled.
5. Change the WiFi password last, once every device is on an account you control. Then re-enter it on each device — a short, boring job you do once, knowing exactly which devices exist.
6. Then do the physical security sweep: re-key or replace the mechanical cylinders, erase the garage opener’s remote memory, change every keypad code. Software transfer and physical security are different jobs and both are required.

At a glance — who does what

1 · Tesla — solar, Powerwall, and the Wall Connector

This is the biggest asset in the house and the longest lead time, so it goes first even though nothing about it is urgent on day one. Tesla runs a dedicated Property & Title team for exactly this situation, staffed with people from the real-estate industry, and the process is well worn.

Seller — before listing.

1. Notify Tesla’s Property & Title team as soon as you are ready to put the home on the market. Tesla asks to be told at listing time, not at closing.
2. Locate the system documents in the Tesla app — the contracts, the design, and the permit package. The buyer will want them and they are easier to find while you still have the account.
3. Export the production history. It is not transferred automatically and it is the buyer’s baseline for years afterwards.

Seller — once the sale completes.

1. Open the Tesla app, go to Settings, then Manage Access, then Remove and Transfer Ownership. This removes the home from your Tesla app.
2. For the Powerwall side, Tesla’s transfer flow asks you to select Initiate Transfer and enter details about the home and the new owner. Have ready: a copy of the transfer deed showing the new homeowner’s name, and photographs of the sticker on the Tesla Backup or Non-Backup Gateway and on each Powerwall.
3. For the Wall Connector, the same pattern applies: select Initiate Transfer and provide details about the home and the unit, including proof of purchase. Tesla’s support team responds to that request.
4. Remove any additional users you had added under Manage Access — family members, an installer — so nobody inherits access by accident.

Buyer — day one and after.

1. Install the Tesla app and create your own Tesla account if you do not have one.
2. Complete the transfer from the app by registering the system — Tesla’s documented route is to register any of the Powerwall, Tesla Solar Inverter, or Wall Connector. The transfer can only be processed after the sale has completed and the new homeowner has contacted Tesla.
3. Contact the Property & Title team with the newly recorded deed; Tesla updates the account owner from that.
4. Confirm you can see live production, house consumption, and battery state. That is the proof the transfer landed.
5. Set your own Backup Reserve and check that Storm Watch is enabled — see power outage.
6. For the Wall Connector, join it to your WiFi and set your access preferences. Commissioning uses the QR code and credentials on the unit’s quick-start documentation; the buyer’s copy of that document is in the archive.

House-specific note: the exterior equipment wall carries two wall-mounted string inverters alongside the Powerwalls and gateway, rather than Tesla-branded inverters. Whether the array was installed by Tesla or by a third-party installer is to be confirmed, because it determines which of Tesla’s two transfer paths applies — the solar-system path or the Powerwall-only path, the latter being the one Tesla documents for homes whose solar was installed by a non-Tesla entity.

2 · UniFi — the network console

Do this early, and do it properly. The network is the one system where a clean transfer preserves genuine engineering work, and where a careless one costs a weekend.

Path A — console ownership transfer (recommended). Ubiquiti supports transferring ownership of a UniFi console from one Ubiquiti account to another. Per Ubiquiti’s documentation, ownership transfer is available on consoles running UniFi OS — a Dream Machine, a Cloud Key Gen2 Plus, or a Network Video Recorder — and is performed by signing in as the current Owner and using Transfer Ownership in the console’s Control Plane. Every network, VLAN, firewall rule, port profile, and PoE setting survives, and the previous owner’s ownership is removed in the process.

Path B — factory reset and re-adopt. Reset each device to defaults and adopt it into a controller and account you create from scratch. You get a provably clean slate with nothing of the previous owner’s left anywhere — and you rebuild the WiFi networks, any VLANs, and every port and PoE setting by hand. Physical reset is the recessed button on each device, held until the LEDs cycle; reset the gateway last, because resetting it first strands the downstream devices from the controller mid-process.

House-specific caveat: the gateway here is a USG-XG-8, which predates UniFi OS, so the controller must be hosted somewhere else — most likely a Cloud Key or a self-hosted controller. Which console or host runs the controller is to confirm, because it decides which path is even available: a Cloud Key Gen2 Plus supports ownership transfer directly, whereas a software controller running on a computer means the handover is of that host plus a new local administrator account rather than a cloud transfer. Either way the outcome is the same — buyer owns the controller, seller’s access is gone — but the mechanics differ, and this is the one item on this page worth confirming before closing rather than after.

3 · ecobee — the thermostat

Straightforward, and it works from the thermostat itself even if the seller has vanished. ecobee documents both directions.

Seller.

1. On the thermostat: Main Menu → Settings → Reset → Reset Registration, and follow the prompts to unregister your ecobee account from the device.
2. Then Main Menu → Settings → Reset → Reset Schedule & Preferences so the buyer starts clean.
3. If you ever set a security code on the thermostat, remove it first — otherwise the buyer has to go through ecobee support with a photo of the serial number to get it released, which takes up to a day.

Buyer.

1. Install the ecobee app and create your own account.
2. On the thermostat, open the Registration wizard to obtain the registration code.
3. In the app, tap the plus sign on the Home overview, choose Add a device → Thermostat, indicate the device is installed, and enter the registration code from the thermostat.
4. Reconnect it to WiFi if needed (Main menu → Settings → WiFi) using the password on the credentials sheet.
5. Set your own schedule and comfort settings, and confirm the filter reminder is on — see Ecobee.

4 · Rachio — the irrigation controller

Rachio has a proper built-in Transfer Ownership feature, and it is the one transfer here that preserves something genuinely hard to recreate: the zone configuration, the schedules, and the watering history for this specific garden. Use it rather than resetting.

Seller.

1. Confirm the buyer has created a Rachio account first — Rachio requires the recipient account to exist before the transfer.
2. In the Rachio app, open the controller and use Transfer Ownership, entering the buyer’s account email. Rachio’s support article walks the exact taps for the current app version.
3. Once the buyer confirms, check that the controller no longer appears in your app, and remove any shared users you had added.

Buyer.

1. Create a Rachio account before the seller starts the transfer, and give them that email address.
2. Accept the transfer, then open the controller and check that every zone is present and correctly named.
3. If the seller has already gone, use Rachio’s claim path instead — the support article “Transfer ownership of a Rachio controller to your account” covers the case where you bought a house with a controller attached to somebody else’s account.
4. Walk the garden and run each zone for a minute to confirm the zone map matches reality — see the irrigation page for the zone map and valve locations.

Rachio generation, zone count, and the zone-to-valve map are to confirm. If the transfer succeeds, the zone names and schedules come across with it, which is why this is the transfer to get right rather than shortcut.

5 · Schlage Encode Plus — the front door deadbolt

The front door carries a Schlage Encode Plus, which is the Encode family’s Apple Home model: it unlocks from an iPhone or Apple Watch held to the keypad, and it appears in Apple Home alongside everything else in an Apple household. That makes this the one device on this page with two relationships to untangle rather than one — the Schlage account, and the seller’s Apple Home. Schlage offers no account-to-account transfer; the documented path is that the seller deletes the lock in the Schlage Home app, which returns it to factory default, confirmed by a green check mark on the touchscreen.

Seller — before closing.

1. Open the Home app, select the front door lock, open its settings, scroll to the bottom, and choose Remove Accessory. That releases the lock from your home and revokes every home key issued from it.
2. Check Home Settings → people for anyone you had invited to the home, and remove those you no longer want in it. Removing the accessory revokes its keys; removing a person closes the wider door.
3. On your own iPhone and Apple Watch, confirm the home key has disappeared from Wallet. That is the visible proof the removal landed.
4. Verify the lock still works standalone: the keypad locks and unlocks with a code, and the Schlage Home app still shows and controls it. HomeKit removal does not touch the lock’s codes — that is the next step.
5. In the Schlage Home app, delete the lock. The app returns it to factory default; watch for the green check mark on the touchscreen. Every access code and virtual key goes with it.
6. Confirm the lock has gone from your Schlage app, and that any shared users or guest access went with it.
7. Leave the lock’s default-code documentation with the house — it is on the label under the battery cover and on the back of the quick-start guide. The buyer needs it to set the lock up.
8. Hand over every physical key, and be honest about how many exist and who has had them.

Buyer — day one.

1. Install the Schlage Home app, create your own account, and add the lock as a new device using the default code on the label under the battery cover.
2. Set your own access codes and delete any that came with the lock.
3. Join it to your WiFi so you get remote lock, unlock, and activity history. This works with no hub of any kind.
4. Change the batteries on day one regardless of what the app says. Four AA alkaline cells — a two-dollar hedge against being locked out in month three.
5. Re-key the mechanical cylinder (see the warning below). The electronics and the brass are separate problems.

Buyer — the Apple Home path, if you want it. This is where the lock earns its price, and the setup is short.

1. Have a home hub in the house — an Apple TV or a HomePod. Without one, Apple Home still controls the lock while you are on the house WiFi, but remote control and automations need the hub. (The Schlage Home app gives you remote control either way, so this is about Apple Home specifically, not about the lock being crippled.)
2. In the Home app, add the accessory and scan the HomeKit setup code — it is on the lock and on its quick-start documentation. Pair it in the Schlage Home app as well; Schlage recommends running both, because code schedules, lock history, and hub-free remote access live on the Schlage side.
3. Add a home key to each household member’s iPhone and Apple Watch. That is the tap-to-unlock at the wave mark in the centre of the keypad — no app, no code, and it works with the phone locked or in power reserve.
4. Set an automation if you want one — lock at night, unlock on arrival — and check the Home app’s people list so it contains only your household.

6 · Eufy Security — the video doorbell

Anker’s eufy Security documentation is refreshingly direct about this: for security reasons, devices under the original account cannot be switched to a new account with one click. There is no transfer feature. The supported route is removal and re-registration.

Seller.

1. Back up any video you want to keep first — eufy’s own guidance says to do this before switching accounts. Once devices are removed, the clips associated with them are not coming back.
2. Remove every eufy Security device from your eufy account.
3. If you are done with eufy entirely, delete the account.
4. Wipe the HomeBase — it sits in the office next to the front door, and this house’s recordings live on it locally rather than in the cloud. Clearing it is the step that actually removes the footage.

Buyer.

1. Create your own eufy Security account.
2. In the app’s device tab, tap Add Devices and follow the in-app setup for the doorbell.
3. If it refuses to add because it still believes it belongs to someone else, the seller has not removed it — go back to them. Failing that, factory-reset the doorbell per its manual and add it again.
4. Check the privacy settings deliberately: what is recorded, where it is stored, and who can see it. Also check whether any neighbors were granted shared access.
5. Confirm the chime, the motion zones, and the notification settings suit you rather than the previous household.

7 · Linear — the garage controller

This is the honest one. Linear’s consumer garage products are now part of Nice, following Nice’s acquisition of Nortek Security & Control, and there is no published consumer account-transfer process for these controllers. Nobody should pretend otherwise. The reliable path is remove-and-re-enroll, and the good news is that there is very little to lose — the controller stores almost no configuration worth preserving.

Seller.

1. Delete the garage controller from whatever app or hub controls it, and remove it from your account.
2. This is the Z-Wave variant, so exclude it from the hub first, then factory-reset the module per its own instructions so it does not remain linked. The exact model number is to confirm; follow that unit’s documentation rather than a generic procedure.
3. Hand over every garage remote, including the ones in cars you are selling separately and the visor clip nobody has used since 2019.

Buyer.

1. Install the app the controller uses, create your own account, and add the device following its documentation.
2. Erase the opener’s remote memory. This is separate from the smart controller and it matters more. Most openers have a Learn button that, held for several seconds, clears every remote and keypad ever paired to the unit. Then re-learn only the remotes you intend to keep. The exact procedure for this opener is to confirm, once its make and model are known.
3. Change the exterior keypad code. If there is a keypad on the outside of the garage, its code is known to whoever has ever been given it. Change it on day one.
4. Test that the app reports the door’s true state — open when open, closed when closed — before you rely on it while away.

Concord 4 alarm panel — nothing to transfer, one thing to confirm

The house has a hardwired Interlogix Concord 4 alarm panel in bedroom 3’s closet, installed and monitored by Global Security of Vancouver, Washington when the house was built. It has been dormant for years — no monitoring, no arming, no active account — so there is no transfer to perform and no app to hand over.

1. Seller: confirm in writing that no monitoring agreement remains open in your name for this address, and that no auto-renewing contract is sitting dormant with a billing address about to change. Dormant alarm contracts are a classic post-closing surprise.
2. Seller: hand over the panel key and any keypad codes you still have, on the credentials sheet.
3. Buyer: if you want a monitored alarm, read the reactivation sequence on the alarm system page before getting quotes — the wiring, contacts, and siren are already installed, which changes what you should be paying for.
4. Buyer: replace the panel’s backup battery whether or not you reactivate. It is nine years old.

SunTouch SunStat Connect — the master bath’s heated-floor thermostat (conditional)

The master bath’s radiant floor heat is controlled by a SunTouch SunStat Connect (model 500875) — a WiFi touchscreen thermostat built to pair with the Watts Home app, and now a discontinued product. Unlike the Ecobee or Rachio, Watts publishes no documented account-to-account transfer flow for this thermostat. Whether that matters at all comes down to one open question.

Whether this thermostat was ever joined to WiFi and the Watts Home app is to confirm. It has never been seen on anything but its factory-default clock, which is equally consistent with a unit that was never joined and one that was joined and later reset.

If it is on WiFi and linked to an account — treat it like the Ecobee: the seller removes it from their Watts Home account (or factory-resets it if unreachable), and the buyer creates a fresh account and re-adds the device using the house WiFi password from the credentials sheet. If it was never joined — there is nothing to transfer. It runs as a plain standalone programmable thermostat, exactly like the towel rack or steam generator below, and needs nothing done at handover beyond learning its wall controls (see Master Bath).

8 · Everything with no account at all

Worth stating, because the absence of a step is information too. These convey with the house and need nothing done: the BlueStar range, the range hood, the fridge and freezer, the microwave drawer, the dishwasher, the kegerator, the wine fridge, the projector, the receiver and amplifier, the screen, the speakers, the heated towel rack, and the steam generator. (The heated floor’s SunTouch thermostat is a partial exception — see above.) If any of them has been linked to a manufacturer app or a smart-home platform, that link is worth checking — but none of them requires a transfer.

Also check the seller’s voice-assistant and smart-home platform links — Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, SmartThings. Devices can remain linked to a household hub long after their own vendor account is transferred, and those links are invisible from the device vendor’s app. Ask the seller directly which platforms the house was ever connected to, and have them remove the home from each one.

The security sweep that closes the handover

This is the appendix’s fourth step — make the house yours — written out device by device now that you know which devices exist. Once every transfer above is done, work the list in one sitting. It is short, and it is the last thing this page asks of you.

• Confirm the front door lock is out of the seller’s Apple Home. Try adding it to your own Home app — if it refuses because it already belongs to a home, it was never released. Go back to the seller; this cannot be fixed from your side.
• Re-key or replace every exterior lock cylinder. One locksmith visit.
• Change the WiFi password and the guest WiFi password — now, not before. Then re-join each device from the list you have just built.
• Change the UniFi console password and remove every administrator that is not you.
• Set new lock codes on the Schlage and delete all inherited codes.
• Change the garage keypad code and erase the opener’s remote memory.
• Check every app’s shared-user list — Tesla, Rachio, ecobee, eufy, Schlage, UniFi. A forgotten shared user is the most common leftover.
• Check the doorbell’s recordings and sharing settings.
• Register the equipment in your own name for warranty purposes, using the serial numbers in this manual.
• Then destroy or seal the credentials sheet once you have changed everything on it, and start your own.

Related pages

• Appendix — Taking Ownership — the four steps this page sits inside, including the utility transfers, which are a separate job from these device accounts.
• What Conveys — the other half of the sale record: which of these devices came with the house.
• Network & Connectivity — the topology, and the adoption and reset mechanics in its deep dive.
• Security & Access — the lock, the doorbell, and the garage controller in everyday use.
• Alarm system — the dormant Concord 4 panel and what reactivating it involves.
• Ecobee thermostat — everyday use once it is yours.
• Power outage — the Tesla settings to configure once you own the system.
• Garage door won’t close — the Linear controller in operation.

• Tesla — Transferring Ownership of Your Solar System
  Seller and buyer steps, the Manage Access → Remove and Transfer Ownership path, and automatic warranty transfer.
• Tesla — Transferring Ownership of Your Powerwall
  The Initiate Transfer flow, the transfer-deed requirement, and the Gateway/Powerwall sticker photographs. Also the path for homes whose solar was installed by a non-Tesla entity.
• Tesla — Property & Title
  The team that handles agreement transfers; notify them at listing time.
• Tesla — Manage Access to your Tesla energy system
  Adding and removing users — check this list before and after transfer.
• Tesla — Registering Your Powerwall
  The buyer-side registration step that completes the transfer.
• Tesla — Tesla app for Wall Connector
  Wall Connector transfer, WiFi setup, and access control.
• Tesla — Gen 3 Wall Connector commissioning procedure (PDF)
  The QR-code commissioning flow, power management, and breaker/output-current settings the buyer will need.
• Ubiquiti — UniFi Password Recovery and Ownership Transfer
  The console ownership-transfer process and which consoles support it.
• Ubiquiti — account.ui.com
  Where the buyer creates the Ubiquiti account that receives the transfer.
• ecobee — How to move your ecobee devices and transfer ownership
  Reset Registration, Reset Schedule & Preferences, the registration-code path, and the locked-thermostat procedure.
• Rachio — Transfer ownership of a Rachio controller to your account
  The buyer-side claim path for a controller still on the previous owner’s account.
• Rachio — Sharing, moving, and transferring a Rachio device or property
  Sharing vs transferring, and the requirement that the recipient already has a Rachio account.
• Schlage — Encode Plus FAQs and support
  Model support hub for the lock on this front door. Deleting the lock in the Schlage Home app returns it to factory default.
• Schlage — Encode Plus: pairing with Apple HomeKit and the Schlage Home app
  The buyer-side pairing order, and when an Apple home hub is required.
• Schlage — Apple home keys: how to use with Encode Plus
  Issuing home keys to iPhone and Apple Watch, and what happens to them when the lock leaves a home.
• Schlage — factory reset a Schlage Encode lock
  The reset button sequence cited above, for the case where the seller is unreachable.
• Apple — securely control your Home accessories
  Apple’s own guidance on removing accessories and reviewing who has access to a home — the source for the seller-side Apple Home steps.
• Apple — set up your HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV as a home hub
  What the buyer needs for remote control and automations from Apple Home.
• Schlage — Programming guides & digital user guides
  The Encode digital user guide, including factory-default reset.
• eufy — Add and switch between multiple eufy Security accounts
  Source for “devices cannot be switched to a new account with one simple click”, and the back-up-then-remove-then-re-add procedure.
• eufy — Moving devices to a new Home in the eufy Security app
  For reorganising devices within an account — not a cross-account transfer.
• Nice North America — Support Center
  Current official support home for Linear-branded products (Nortek Security & Control was acquired by Nice; nortekcontrol.com redirects here). No consumer account-transfer process is published for these controllers — the remove-and-re-enroll path above is the honest answer, not a shortcut.