Runbook — Smart-home account transfer

A house full of connected equipment is only worth having if it is yours. Every device here is tied to some account somewhere, 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. This page fixes that, vendor by vendor, with each process taken from the vendor’s own documentation.

Every account login, WiFi password, and lock/keypad code referenced on this pageSealed credentials sheet · handed over at closing

The principle: order of operations

The order matters more than any individual step, because these systems depend on each other. Get the order right and the whole handover takes 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.

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.

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.

5 · Schlage Encode — the WiFi deadbolt

Schlage does not offer an account-to-account transfer for the Encode. The documented path is that the seller deletes the lock in the Schlage Home app, which returns the lock to factory default settings — on success the touchscreen flashes the green check mark. Everything the seller had set is erased, which is exactly what you want here.

Seller.

1. Remove the lock from Apple HomeKit first: in the Home app, select the Schlage lock, open its settings, and choose Remove Accessory. This detaches it from HomeKit without affecting the lock’s own codes yet.
2. Verify the lock now works standalone — the keypad still locks/unlocks with a code, and the Schlage Home app (not the Home app) still shows and controls it — before moving on. This confirms the lock has no lingering HomeKit dependency.
3. In the Schlage Home app, delete the lock. The app returns the lock to factory default; watch for the green check mark on the touchscreen confirming it worked.
4. Confirm the lock has gone from your app, and that any shared users or guest access you granted have gone with it.
5. Leave the lock’s programming/default code documentation with the house — it is on the label under the battery cover and in the quick-start guide.
6. Hand over every physical key, and be honest about how many exist and who has had them.

Buyer.

1. Install the Schlage Home app, create your own account, and add the lock as a new device using the code on the lock’s label (under the battery cover). Exact label location on this unit to confirm at the walkthrough.
2. Set your own access codes and delete any that came with the lock.
3. Join it to your WiFi so you get remote access and activity history.
4. Change the batteries on day one regardless of what the app says. It is a two-dollar hedge against being locked out in month three.
5. If you’re an Apple household with a HomeKit hub, adding the lock back into your own HomeKit is entirely optional and can wait — the lock is fully functional on the keypad and Schlage Home app without it.

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. If there is a HomeBase or local storage, wipe it — recordings can live on the device rather than in the cloud. Whether this house has a HomeBase, and whether the doorbell is wired or battery, is to be confirmed at the walkthrough.

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. Factory-reset the module per its own instructions so it does not remain linked. The reset procedure depends on which Linear variant this is — WiFi or Z-Wave — and the model is to be confirmed at the walkthrough; follow the unit’s documentation rather than a generic procedure. If it is the Z-Wave variant, it should be excluded from the hub before it is reset.
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 be captured once the make and model are recorded.
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.

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.

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.

The buyer’s day-one security sweep

Once every transfer above is done, work this list in one sitting. It is short and it ends the handover cleanly.

• 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

• Start Here — day-one utility transfers, which are a separate job from these device accounts.
• Network & Connectivity — the topology, and the adoption and reset mechanics in its deep dive.
• 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 FAQs and support
  Model support hub. Deleting the lock in the Schlage Home app returns it to factory default.
• 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.