Transferring maintainership of an R package on CRAN

I just changed maintainer address, and followed procedure answered by @Benjamin. I was asked simply to submit first with new address in DESCRIPTION file and then afterwards admin contacted me on previous listed maintainer email and asked me to confirm the transfer.

So the process is

• Submit first with new DESCRIPTION file
• Confirm submission on new email-address
• Answer confirmation-mail sent by admin to old email-address

Speaking from experience, before CRAN will accept an update with a different maintainer, they will want to receive an e-mail from the current maintainer explaining the intention to change maintainers. This e-mail must come from the e-mail account listed in the DESCRIPTION file.

After CRAN has received that e-mail, you may edit the DESCRIPTION file to change the maintainer name and contact information, then submit to CRAN. I would include an explanation of the change of maintainer in your submission notes, as well as a reference to the e-mail sent to CRAN.