What can a landlord charge for a rental application in Maine?
Maine bans residential rental application fees outright and allows only one narrow exception: a landlord may charge an applicant the actual cost of a single background check, credit check, or other screening process, and only once in any 12-month period.
Cited to 14 M.R.S. §6030-H 2 and 20 more Maine statutes · Verified August 26, 2026
That charge is permitted only if the landlord has first told the applicant that it must hand over a complete copy of the information obtained, and it must then do so. Maine also requires a signed written statement of the total price, listing rent and every recurring fee, before a lease is entered, and it limits the money a landlord may require to start a tenancy to the first month's rent, a security deposit, and properly disclosed mandatory recurring fees. The state sets no receipt duty for application money, no refund rules, no denial-notice duty of its own, no reusable screening report regime, and no rules for a deposit taken to hold a unit before signing.
Maine application fees at a glance
| Application fee cap | Application fees are banned. A landlord may not charge a fee to submit a rental application or a fee to review or approve one. The only permitted charge is the actual cost of one of the following: a background check, a credit check, or another screening process. A landlord may charge the same applicant only one such fee in any 12-month period. Maine answers the application-fee question with a prohibition rather than a ceiling, then allows a single narrow cost pass-through. Because the exception covers only one of the three categories, a landlord may not stack a background check charge on top of a credit check charge for the same application. The rule reaches every dwelling unit rented for human habitation, including mobile homes, with no exemption for small or owner-occupied buildings. |
|---|---|
| Fee limited to actual screening cost | Yes |
| Screening charge rules | The single permitted screening charge carries four conditions: it may cover only one of a background check, a credit check, or another screening process; it is limited to actual cost; the landlord must give the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained; and the landlord may not charge the fee at all unless it has first told the applicant about that copy duty. A landlord may not charge the same applicant more than one such fee in any 12-month period. The copy duty is unconditional once a fee is charged, so an applicant who pays for screening in Maine receives the results whether or not the application succeeds. The advance notice about that duty is a precondition of charging anything, which means a landlord who collects first and explains later has charged a fee the statute did not permit. The 12-month limit is written with the landlord as its subject, so it binds each landlord as to that applicant rather than capping what every landlord in the state may charge the same person in a year. |
| Receipt required | No statutory receipt duty for application money |
| Refund required in some circumstances | No statutory refund duty |
| Refund rules | No statutory refund duty |
| Disclosure before collecting | Before any screening charge, the landlord must have told the applicant that it is required by law to provide a complete copy of the information obtained; without that notice the fee may not be charged. Before a lease or tenancy at will agreement is entered, the landlord must give a written total price disclosure covering rent, any mandatory recurring fee, any optional recurring fee, utility service costs, and any other cost the tenant will be responsible for paying, signed by both parties with a copy to each. Two duties sit on either side of the money. The first is a precondition of charging a screening fee at all. The second comes before the agreement is signed, must be plain and readily understandable by the general public, and is excused only where the tenant owes no mandatory or optional recurring fee. Maine does not require a landlord to publish its screening criteria, to break the screening charge into components, or to state applicant rights before collecting money. |
| Denial-notice duties (state law) | No state statute — federal fair-credit duties still apply |
| Reusable screening reports | No statute on reusable screening reports |
| Holding deposits | No statute on holding deposits |
| Rental fee-transparency rules | Before a lease or tenancy at will agreement is entered, a landlord must give a signed written total price disclosure listing rent, every mandatory recurring fee, every optional recurring fee, utility service costs, and any other cost the tenant will pay, in language plain and readily understandable by the general public. Optional recurring fees are separately regulated: written notice before the fee starts, the right to stop paying at any time without penalty, and no denial or termination of a tenancy for opting out. Rent or a mandatory recurring fee may be increased only after 45 days' written notice, and 75 days where a rent increase reaches 10 percent. This is a pre-contract disclosure regime rather than an advertising rule: Maine does not require an all-in price in rental listings. The total price disclosure may be skipped only where the tenant owes no mandatory or optional recurring fee. Where utility costs cannot be obtained, a completed residential rental energy efficiency disclosure statement may stand in their place. The Attorney General's trade-practice regulations were also considered; they cover heating oil, urea formaldehyde and motor vehicles, and none reaches residential rentals. |
| Penalty for violation | Consequences attach duty by duty. A lease or tenancy at will agreement is unenforceable if the landlord does not hold a signed copy of the total price disclosure. A lease provision requiring payment of an optional recurring fee in breach of the optional-fee or total-price sections, or a mandatory recurring fee in breach of the total-price section, is unenforceable and is itself a violation of the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Requiring a tenant to waive a right under the eviction, rental property, or security deposit chapters is an unfair and deceptive trade practice. A landlord who raises rent or a mandatory recurring fee without the required notice is liable for the return of any sums unlawfully obtained, with interest, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The application-fee section itself names no penalty. The Unfair Trade Practices Act route gives a person who purchases or leases goods, services or property an action for actual damages, restitution, and other equitable relief including an injunction, with reasonable attorney's fees and costs to a successful petitioner; it sets no fixed statutory damages figure. Asserting rights under the optional-fee or total-price sections is also listed among the acts protected from retaliatory eviction. The section banning application fees is the outlier: it creates duties but names no remedy, and the unenforceability provisions do not list it. |
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Maine Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 26, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/maine/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Maine statute in the citations section below.
Notes and caveats
- A ban with one exception, not a dollar cap — Maine does not set a maximum application fee, because the fee itself is prohibited. The only money a landlord may ask an applicant for is the actual cost of one screening product.
- Only one screening product may be charged for — The exception covers a background check, a credit check, or another screening process, and permits the actual cost of only one of them. Charging separately for a background check and a credit check on the same application goes beyond the exception.
- The applicant gets the report — Whenever a screening fee is charged, the landlord must give the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained, and must have said in advance that it is required to do so. The duty applies whether or not the applicant gets the unit.
- One fee per landlord per year — The 12-month limit binds each landlord as to a given applicant. Someone applying to several different landlords in a year may still be charged by each of them.
- Total price before signing — Rent, every mandatory recurring fee, every optional recurring fee, utility service costs and any other cost must be set out in writing and signed by both parties before the agreement is entered. A lease is unenforceable if the landlord does not hold a signed copy.
- No penalty is written into the fee ban — The section that bans application fees names no damages or penalty, and the provisions that make other rental-fee breaches unenforceable or unfair trade practices do not list it. The consequences described for this topic attach to the disclosure and recurring-fee rules.
- Mobile homes are covered, park lots are separate — The definition of dwelling unit includes mobile homes, so the fee ban applies to renting one. Applications to rent a lot in a mobile home park are governed by a separate section of Maine law.
- Where to read the law — The Office of the Revisor of Statutes publishes Maine's statutes at legislature.maine.gov. Statute pages carry the date their data were extracted, so recently enacted changes may appear in the session laws before they appear in the statute text.
- How the cost limit works — The one permitted charge is the actual cost of the check. The statute allows no markup and makes no separate allowance for administrative or processing costs, so a landlord's own time spent reviewing an application cannot be charged for.
- What the receipt duty covers — No Maine statute requires a receipt for application or screening money. The state's receipt statute covers only rental payments and security deposit payments received partly or wholly in cash, and it does not apply to a tenancy in a building of five dwelling units or fewer where the landlord occupies one of them. The application-fee section imposes no receipt duty, though it does require the landlord to hand over a complete copy of the screening information obtained.
- When money must come back — Maine controls application-stage money by forbidding the fee and confining the one permitted charge to actual cost, not by ordering money returned. No provision requires a refund where the applicant is turned down, where the unit is filled or taken off the market, where the applicant withdraws, or where the screening is never carried out.
- Refunds — Because no refund duty exists, no deadline, amount, or method is set. Nothing elsewhere in the rental property chapter supplies one for application or screening money.
- Denial notices — Maine imposes no state denial-notice duty on a landlord who turns down a rental applicant. The state's own requirement on users of consumer reports was repealed in 2013 and nothing replaced it for housing decisions. Maine's one report-related duty at the application stage runs with the fee rather than with a denial: a landlord that charges a screening fee must give the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained, whatever the outcome. Federal consumer-report law supplies the denial-notice duties that do apply.
- Reusable screening reports — Maine has no reusable or portable tenant screening report statute. A landlord need not accept a screening report an applicant obtained for another landlord, is not barred from charging its own permitted screening fee when one is offered, and no validity window is set. The practical effect of Maine's rules is different: because the permitted charge is limited to actual cost, covers only one screening product, and may be imposed only once per applicant per 12 months by the same landlord, the cost of repeat screening is already constrained.
- Money to hold a unit — No Maine statute names a holding deposit or holding fee, caps one, requires a written statement of its terms, or states what happens to it if the applicant is approved, rejected, or withdraws. Two provisions govern nearby. On entering a lease or tenancy at will agreement, a landlord, a landlord's agent or a real estate broker may not require an initial payment larger than the first full month's rent, a security deposit, and any properly disclosed mandatory recurring fee, which leaves no room for a separate holding charge at signing. And a security deposit, defined as any advance or deposit of money whose primary function is to secure performance of the agreement, may not exceed two months' rent.
Common questions: Maine application fees
Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.
- How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in Maine?
- Application fees are banned. A landlord may not charge a fee to submit a rental application or a fee to review or approve one. The only permitted charge is the actual cost of one of the following: a background check, a credit check, or another screening process. A landlord may charge the same applicant only one such fee in any 12-month period.
- Does an application fee have to be refunded in Maine?
- No statutory refund duty.
- Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Maine?
- No statutory receipt duty for application money.
- Does Maine have a reusable tenant screening report law?
- No statute on reusable screening reports.
- Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Maine?
- No statute on holding deposits.
Statute citations
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-H 2 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-H 3 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6021 1 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6022 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-H (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. ch. 710 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-J 2 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-J 3 (verified 2026) Official source
- 10 M.R.S. §1320 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6022-A 1 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6031 1 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6032 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-I 2 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6015 1 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030 4 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030 2(F) (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030 1 (verified 2026) Official source
- 5 M.R.S. §213 1 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6001 3(A) (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030-H 2, 3 (verified 2026) Official source
- 14 M.R.S. §6030 2, 4 (verified 2026) Official source
How this record was verified: Direct read of 14 M.R.S. sections 6000, 6021, 6022, 6022-A, 6030, 6030-H, 6030-I, 6030-J, 6031 and 6032 on legislature.maine.gov, together with the chapter 710 section list; direct read of 10 M.R.S. section 1320, which is repealed, and of 5 M.R.S. sections 207 and 213; a read of the Attorney General's rule chapter index on the Secretary of State's site to test for an advertised-price or fee-disclosure regulation; and, because every statute page carries the line that its data were extracted on October 20, 2025, a term search and read of the Legislature's own Digest of Bills and Summaries of Enacted Laws for both the 2025 First Regular and First Special Sessions and the 2026 Second Regular Session, plus the chaptered texts of Public Law 2023, chapter 346, Public Law 2023, chapter 594 and Public Law 2025, chapter 767 taken from the Legislature's bill pages.