Summary

  • RIPE NCC asks members seeking to avoid a 2027 invoice to submit a complete, valid LIR closure request before 31 December 2026. Resources involved in a transfer must already be transferable when the request arrives.
  • An IPv6 allocation may need additional transfer evaluation. RIPE suggests leaving one with no real operational need out of the transfer and returning it to the free pool.

The easiest thing to pack is often the thing that slows the move. In its October member update, RIPE NCC gives departing LIRs a billing date and a small inventory problem. To avoid a 2027 invoice, submit a complete, valid closure request before 31 December. If the closure follows a transfer or a change in business structure, include the documents and say plainly that the account is to close. The resources must be transferable at the time of the request. A calendar reminder alone cannot do that work.

Then comes the IPv6 sentence. Transferring an IPv6 allocation may require additional evaluation, RIPE says. Where there is no real need to move it, the member should consider excluding it from the transfer and returning it to the free pool. That is a practical fork in the exit plan. An allocation carrying live customers or network configuration calls for continuity. An idle allocation riding along because it happens to be on the spreadsheet can add a review question to a transaction already racing the year-end clock.

The registry's closure procedure, RIPE-858, describes how membership ends and how resources are deregistered. The October reminder turns that framework into an immediate task: identify every allocation, decide its destination, confirm transfer eligibility, and lodge a complete request. A half-packed resource inventory leaves billing and operations hanging on the same missing answer. RIPE publishes no count of members facing this choice or of IPv6 transfers that required extra review.

For a closing LIR, the useful document is a per-resource list with three columns: needed by a successor, returnable, and still unresolved. The final column should be empty before anyone calls the closure file complete. A spare IPv6 block does not need a farewell tour.