How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in Maine?

7 days. The notice cannot even be written until rent is already 7 or more days in arrears, so the true minimum before filing is 14 days, not 7. Paying the full amount due before the notice expires voids it outright (14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)).

How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in Maine?

7 days. Those 7 days are a termination period, not a cure window — the tenancy ends when the notice expires and the landlord may then file. On the non-rent grounds Maine gives the tenant no statutory right to cure once a valid notice has issued.

How long does an eviction take in Maine?

About 37 days from the first day rent is late to lockout in an uncontested nonpayment case. That is a statutory floor rather than a forecast — contested, mediated, and retaliation-defense cases run materially longer.

Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in Maine?

No — Maine bars self-help eviction by statute; a landlord must go through the court process. Shutting off a utility, changing the locks, or otherwise denying a tenant access without going through the court is illegal and against public policy, and the tenant recovers actual damages or $250, whichever is greater, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees (14 M.R.S. § 6014).

What is the eviction process and timeline in Maine?

Verified July 25, 2026 All Maine topics →

Check your municipality. Maine does not preempt local rent regulation — city or county ordinances may impose rent caps, notice rules, and fee limits that are stricter than the state-level rules on this page and are not covered here. Verify your municipality's ordinances before relying on any figure below. Verified local pages: Portland , South Portland .

What the state record says

Maine does not preempt local rent control, and two cities regulate rents. Portland has run voter-initiated rent control since 2021, allowing 2.2% for calendar 2026, one increase per 12 months, and 90 days' notice; South Portland caps annual increases at 10% for buildings of 16+ commonly owned units. There is no statewide rent control or percentage cap (§6016's habitability bar is a condition on increases, not a cap). Portland's ordinance is Portland City Code ch. 6, secs. 6-231 to 6-239: an annual Allowable Increase Percentage published each September 1 (2.2% for calendar 2026), one increase per 12 months, +5% of base rent on voluntary turnover, banked increases, a hard 10% ceiling per increase, Rent Board review, and 90 days' written notice, plus a local one-month deposit cap and application-fee ban. South Portland's is a council-enacted rent stabilization ordinance (March 2023; 10% annual cap for buildings of 16+ commonly owned units; sunsets 2030). The former state enabling chapter (30-A ch. 167, 'Municipal Rent Control') was repealed in 1995 with nothing enacted in its place; municipalities act under home rule (30-A §3001).

To evict a tenant in Maine the landlord serves a written notice of termination - 7 days for nonpayment of rent or for cause, or 30 days to end a tenancy at will without cause - then files a forcible entry and detainer action in the District Court, where the tenant gets at least 14 days from service before the return day and the writ of possession issues 7 calendar days after judgment.

Cited to 14 M.R.S. § 6001 sub-§§ 1, 1-B, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 20 more Maine statutes · Verified July 25, 2026

The most-missed step is that rent must already be at least 7 days in arrears before the 7-day notice can even be written, so the true pre-filing minimum for nonpayment is 14 days rather than 7. The nonpayment notice carries an exceptionally long cure right: paying the full amount due before the notice expires voids it outright, and in a tenancy at will paying all arrears, current rent, filing fees and service fees at any time before the writ issues reinstates the tenancy and bars the writ altogether - so a Maine tenant can stop the eviction after losing at the hearing. The 7-day for-cause notice used for property damage, nuisance, violence and unauthorized occupants carries no cure right at all. Periods are counted as calendar days with a rollover if the last day falls on a weekend or holiday. Locking a tenant out or shutting off utilities is illegal: any eviction carried out without going through the court is against public policy and exposes the landlord to the greater of actual damages or $250, plus costs and attorney's fees.

Maine eviction process at a glance

Nonpayment notice (pay-or-quit)	7 days
Nonpayment notice rules (day counting, cure rights, service)	The notice cannot even be written until rent is already 7 or more days in arrears, so the true minimum before filing is 14 days, not 7. Paying the full amount due before the notice expires voids it outright (14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)). Two periods run back to back and BOTH are mandatory. First, rent must actually be in arrears at least 7 days before a notice may issue: 14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)(C) makes the ground for a 7-day notice that 'The tenant is 7 days or more in arrears in the payment of rent.' Only then may the landlord serve the 7-day written notice of termination under § 6002(1). Minimum pre-filing exposure is therefore 14 days, not 7. Day counting: 1 M.R.S. § 71(12) routes 'the statutory time period for the performance or occurrence of any act, event or default that is a prerequisite to ... the commencement ... of any civil ... action' to M.R. Civ. P. 6(a). Under Rule 6(a) the day of service is excluded, the last day is included unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday (then it rolls to the next non-holiday weekday), and intermediate weekends/holidays are excluded only 'when the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than 7 days.' A 7-day period is not less than 7, so Maine's eviction periods are effectively CALENDAR days with a last-day business-day rollover; the weekend-exclusion rule never bites on any Maine eviction period described here. Cure: the tenant's right is unusually long and has two stages. Stage 1 - '[i]f a tenant who is 7 days or more in arrears in the payment of rent pays the full amount of rent due before the expiration of the 7-day notice in writing, that notice is void' (§ 6002(1)). Stage 2 - 'Thereafter, in all residential tenancies at will, if the tenant pays all rental arrears, all rent due as of the date of payment and any filing fees and service of process fees actually expended by the landlord before the issuance of the writ of possession as provided by section 6005, then the tenancy must be reinstated and no writ of possession may issue' (§ 6002(1)). So cure survives the notice, survives the hearing and survives judgment, ending only when the writ issues 7 calendar days after judgment; § 6005 independently bars the writ: 'A writ of possession may not issue in any case in which the ground for termination of the tenancy at will was rent arrearage and the defendant paid the amount necessary to reinstate the tenancy as provided by section 6002.' The stage-2 reinstatement right is textually limited to tenancies at will (see the note below, 'Post-judgment reinstatement may not reach written-lease tenants'). Repeat defaults do not defeat either stage - Maine has no repeat-nonpayment exception. Payment or written assurance of payment through the municipal/state general assistance program under 22 M.R.S. ch. 1161 'has the same effect as payment in cash' (§ 6002(1)). Required content: § 6002(2)(A) requires the notice to state the ground, state 'the amount of the rent that is 7 days or more in arrears as of the date of the notice,' and set forth verbatim the statutory paragraph beginning 'If you pay the amount of rent due as of the date of this notice before this notice expires, then this notice as it applies to rent arrearage is void.' A misstated arrearage or clerical error does not invalidate the notice if the landlord shows the error was unintentional (§ 6002(2)(B)). Every termination notice must also advise the tenant of the right to contest in court; omission is not grounds to dismiss but is grounds to set aside a default judgment where the tenant did not appear (§ 6002, second undesignated paragraph). Since January 1, 2024 the landlord must also attach the Judicial Branch form notice to the termination notice (14 M.R.S. § 6001(7); M.R. Civ. P. 80D(c)). Service: personal delivery, or - after 'at least 3 good faith efforts' to serve in hand - by BOTH first-class mail to the last known address AND leaving the notice at the last and usual place of abode (§ 6002(1)). Service by a person authorized under 14 M.R.S. §§ 702-703 makes the notice self-authenticating in evidence (§ 6001(8)). Overlays: the 15-day late-fee threshold in 14 M.R.S. § 6028(1) is a fee rule only and does NOT delay the 7-day arrears clock. A 30-day no-cause notice and a 7-day for-cause notice 'may be combined in one notice to the tenant' (§ 6002), so the two are not additive.
Lease-violation notice period	7 days
Lease-violation notice rules (cure vs. termination)	Those 7 days are a termination period, not a cure window — the tenancy ends when the notice expires and the landlord may then file. On the non-rent grounds Maine gives the tenant no statutory right to cure once a valid notice has issued. Maine sets ONE number, not two: 14 M.R.S. § 6002(1) provides that 'the tenancy may be terminated upon 7 days' written notice in the event that the landlord can show, by affirmative proof' one of the listed grounds. The 7-day figure shown here is the termination/filing date - the tenancy ends at expiration of the notice and the landlord may then bring the forcible entry and detainer action (§ 6001(1); § 6002, final sentence of the opening paragraph: 'Termination of the tenancy is deemed to occur at the expiration of the time fixed in the notice'). Maine does NOT carry the URLTA two-number 'terminate in 30 days unless remedied in 14' structure, so there is no second figure to report and no cure window to confuse with the number shown here. There is in fact NO statutory post-notice cure right for the non-rent grounds at all: the only cure-flavoured language is a PRE-notice condition on the property-damage ground, which requires that the tenant 'has not repaired or caused to be repaired' the substantial damage 'before the giving of the notice provided in this subsection' (§ 6002(1)(A)). Once a valid 7-day for-cause notice issues on a non-rent ground, the tenant has no statutory right to cure it. Grounds constituting material noncompliance (§ 6002(1)): (A) substantial damage to the premises by the tenant, the tenant's family or an invitee, unrepaired before the notice; (B) the tenant, family or invitee 'caused or permitted a nuisance within the premises, has caused or permitted an invitee to cause the dwelling unit to become unfit for human habitation or has violated or permitted a violation of the law regarding the tenancy'; (C) 7-days-or-more rent arrearage; (D) the tenant is a perpetrator of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking where the victim is also a tenant; (E) the tenant, guest or invitee is the perpetrator of violence, a threat of violence or sexual assault against another tenant, a tenant's guest, the landlord or the landlord's employee or agent; (F) the occupant 'is not an authorized occupant of the premises.' A separate 7-day ground sits in 14 M.R.S. § 6025(3): if a tenant changes the lock and refuses to give the landlord a duplicate key, 'the landlord may terminate the tenancy with a 7-day notice.' WRITTEN LEASES: the § 6002 machinery is written for tenancies at will. Against a tenant under a written lease, forcible entry and detainer lies 'at the expiration or forfeiture of the term, without notice, if commenced within 7 days from the expiration or forfeiture of the term' (§ 6001(1)) - i.e. termination for breach ordinarily rides the lease's own forfeiture and notice clause. The statutory 7-day period becomes the default only where the lease is silent: § 6001(1-B) applies '[i]f a written residential lease or contract does not include a provision to terminate the tenancy or does not provide for any written notice of termination in the event of a material breach,' in which case 'A landlord may terminate the tenancy in accordance with section 6002, subsections 1 and 2.' No statutory repeat-violation escalation exists; the 7-day for-cause notice is already the shortest period Maine provides. Notice content and service are the same as for nonpayment (right-to-contest language, Judicial Branch form notice, in-hand service or 3 good-faith efforts then mail-and-post).
Unconditional-quit grounds	Maine has no separate shorter 'unconditional quit' track - every for-cause termination uses the same 7-day written notice under 14 M.R.S. § 6002(1), but for the non-rent grounds that notice is functionally unconditional because no statutory cure right attaches to it. The grounds that terminate without any opportunity to cure after the notice issues are § 6002(1)(A) substantial damage not repaired before the notice was given; (B) nuisance, permitting an invitee to render the unit unfit for human habitation, or violating or permitting a violation of the law regarding the tenancy - the hook for drug and other illegal-activity cases; (D) perpetrating domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking where the victim is also a tenant; (E) perpetrating violence, a threat of violence or sexual assault against another tenant, a tenant's guest, the landlord or the landlord's employee or agent; and (F) occupying the premises without being an authorized occupant. All of these require the landlord to prove the ground 'by affirmative proof,' a higher pleading burden than an ordinary no-cause termination. Two counterweights: a tenant who is a victim as defined in 14 M.R.S. § 6000(4) and who has taken reasonable action to comply with the landlord's protection request is carved out of ground (E), and 14 M.R.S. § 6001(6)(A) bars evicting a victim based on incidents of actual or threatened domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking that would otherwise be construed as a nuisance, as damage to property, or as a lease violation arising from nuisance, disturbance or damage. Section 6001(6)(C) lets a landlord bifurcate the lease to remove only the perpetrator. Where no cause exists, a tenancy at will is terminated on a minimum of 30 days' written notice under § 6002, and a 30-day notice and a 7-day notice may be combined in a single document.
Court and action	The action is forcible entry and detainer (FED), governed by 14 M.R.S. ch. 709 (residential provisions in subchapter 1) and M.R. Civ. P. 80D. Jurisdiction is exclusive to the District Court: '[t]he District Court shall have jurisdiction of cases of forcible entry and detainer' (14 M.R.S. § 6003). Rule 80D(a) provides that the Rules of Civil Procedure 'so far as applicable, shall govern the procedure in forcible entry and detainer actions in the District Court and on appeal to the Superior Court and the Law Court, except as otherwise provided in this rule or by statute.' The process 'must be commenced and service made in the same manner as other civil actions,' with a mail-and-post alternative after 3 good-faith efforts on 3 different days (14 M.R.S. § 6004(1)). Two Maine-specific procedural requirements: the plaintiff must attach a Judicial Branch plain-language form notice to the served summons and complaint describing the court process, warning that non-appearance may result in judgment, and listing rental assistance, legal and housing-counseling resources plus a mediation request form (§ 6004(2); M.R. Civ. P. 80D(c) requires the same information sheet be served with the termination notice as well). Mediation is central: the court 'may, in any residential tenancy under this subchapter, at any time refer the parties to mediation on any issue' (14 M.R.S. § 6004-A), and where mediation does not produce agreement the court 'shall determine that the parties made a good faith effort to mediate the issue before proceeding with a hearing' - a landlord found not to have mediated in good faith may have the action dismissed, judgment entered by default against it, or fees and costs assessed (§ 6004-A(2)). The court must announce the availability of any attorney present to represent tenants before the FED docket is called (§ 6004(3); Rule 80D(f)(1)). Appeal on questions of law and jury trial de novo both lie to the Superior Court (§ 6008(1); Rule 80D(g)).
Filing to hearing	No statutory filing-to-hearing window exists, because Maine reverses the usual order: the summons is served before the complaint is filed. The controlling interval runs from SERVICE, not filing - M.R. Civ. P. 80D(b)(4) requires the summons to 'state the day when the action is returnable, which shall be not fewer than 14 days from the date of service of the summons.' The complaint is then filed late in the sequence: 'The complaint for forcible entry and detainer shall be filed no later than 3 days before the date of the hearing,' and for good cause the court may hear a case filed after that deadline (Rule 80D(d)); the lease and a copy of the termination notice must be filed with it, though a failure to attach them 'may be grounds for a continuance but not for dismissal.' All FED actions 'shall be in order for trial on the return day' (Rule 80D(f)(2)), and 14 M.R.S. § 6003 caps the wait: 'The court shall schedule and hold the hearing as soon as practicable, but no later than 10 days after the return day except that the court may grant a continuance for good cause shown.' Net effect: at least 14 days from service to the return day, with the hearing on the return day or within 10 days after it. A defendant who wants a recorded hearing 'shall file a written answer enumerating all known defenses on or before the return day' (§ 6003); otherwise the defendant 'may appear and defend without filing a responsive pleading' (Rule 80D(e)), and a claim of title must be raised by answer on or before the return day.
Writ of possession and lockout	The possession order is a writ of possession. 14 M.R.S. § 6005: 'When the defendant is defaulted or fails to show sufficient cause, judgment must be rendered against the defendant by the District Court for possession of the premises. Seven calendar days after the judgment is entered, the court shall issue the writ of possession to remove the defendant.' The 7-day wait is expressly stated in CALENDAR days, the only period in ch. 709 whose unit the statute names outright. The writ 'may be served by a sheriff or a constable'; after 3 good-faith efforts on 3 different days it may be served by first-class mail to the last known address plus leaving it at the last and usual place of abode. Execution: 'When a writ of possession has been served on the defendant by a constable or sheriff, and the defendant fails to remove himself or his possessions within 48 hours of service by the constable or sheriff, the defendant is deemed a trespasser without right and the defendant's goods and property are considered by law to be abandoned and subject to section 6013.' A second writ may be issued by the clerk on the plaintiff's request after the first. Two hard bars on issuance: no writ may issue where the ground was rent arrearage and the defendant paid the reinstatement amount under § 6002 (§ 6005), and no writ may issue absent rebuttal of the § 6001(3) presumption of retaliation or where the tenant proves the action was retaliation for membership in a tenants' organization (§ 6001(3), (4)). Abandoned property must be placed in storage 'in a safe, dry, secured location,' with written notice to the tenant that may not set a claim period shorter than 7 days after mailing or 48 hours after service of the writ, whichever is longer (14 M.R.S. § 6013(1), (2)).
Appeal window	7 days
Best-case uncontested timeline (derived from statutory minimums — contested cases run longer)	About 37 days from the first day rent is late to lockout in an uncontested nonpayment case. That is a statutory floor rather than a forecast — contested, mediated, and retaliation-defense cases run materially longer. The floor adds the statutory minimums: 7 days of arrears before a notice may issue (14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)(C)) + 7 days' notice of termination (§ 6002(1)) + 14 days from service of the summons to the return day (M.R. Civ. P. 80D(b)(4)), with the hearing in order for trial on the return day (Rule 80D(f)(2)) + 7 calendar days from judgment to issuance of the writ (§ 6005) + 48 hours after service of the writ before the tenant is a trespasser and the goods are deemed abandoned (§ 6005) = 7 + 7 + 14 + 7 + 2. It assumes service on the day the notice expires, a hearing on the return day rather than up to 10 days later as § 6003 permits, no continuance, no referral to mediation under § 6004-A, and no exercise of the tenant's right to reinstate by paying arrears plus costs at any point before the writ issues. Contested cases, mediated cases, and cases in which the retaliation presumption must be rebutted run materially longer.
Self-help eviction (lockout, utility shutoff) barred	Yes
Self-help scope and tenant remedies	Shutting off a utility, changing the locks, or otherwise denying a tenant access without going through the court is illegal and against public policy, and the tenant recovers actual damages or $250, whichever is greater, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees (14 M.R.S. § 6014). The bar is broad. 14 M.R.S. § 6014(1): 'Except as permitted by Title 15, chapter 517 or Title 17, chapter 91, evictions that are effected without resort to the provisions of this chapter are illegal and against public policy.' The section then names three illegal evictions without limiting the category: (A) no landlord 'may willfully cause, directly or indirectly, the interruption or termination of any utility service being supplied to the tenant including, but not limited to, water, heat, light, electricity, gas, telephone, sewerage, elevator or refrigeration, whether or not the utility service is under the control of the landlord,' except for temporary interruption for actual repairs or during temporary emergencies; (B) no landlord 'may willfully seize, hold or otherwise directly or indirectly deny a tenant access to and possession of the tenant's rented or leased premises, other than through proper judicial process'; and (C) the same prohibition as to the tenant's property. Remedies (§ 6014(2)): the tenant recovers actual damages or $250, whichever is greater, plus costs and expenses reasonably incurred and reasonable attorney's fees; the remedies are non-exclusive (§ 6014(4)), and a court may award fees to a landlord if the claim was brought frivolously or to harass (§ 6014(3)). Related statutory backstops: a landlord who fails to pay for utility service in the landlord's own name is liable for actual damages or $100, whichever is greater, plus costs and possibly fees, with a rebuttable presumption that the failure was knowing (14 M.R.S. § 6024-A); and unlawful entry, unreasonable entry, or repeated lawful demands for entry that harass the tenant expose the landlord to actual damages or $250, whichever is greater (raised from $100 by PL 2025, c. 767, effective July 29, 2026), plus injunctive relief and fees after a contested hearing (14 M.R.S. § 6025(3)). Entry generally requires reasonable notice, with 24 hours presumed reasonable, except in an emergency or where notice is impracticable (§ 6025(2)). Also in force since July 29, 2026: c. 767, § 3's new 14 M.R.S. § 6025-B bars a landlord from disclosing a tenant's personal information 'with the intent to harass, intimidate or otherwise cause a person to vacate a rental property outside of the judicial process as established in chapter 709,' with a $1,000 floor on damages.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Maine Eviction Process Laws (verified July 25, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/eviction-process/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

Scope: standard residential tenancies only — Manufactured-housing communities run on a wholly separate just-cause scheme in 10 M.R.S. ch. 951, subch. 6 — 10 M.R.S. § 9097(1) permits termination only for enumerated reasons and gives a nonpayment tenant a distinct cure (all arrearages plus 5% of outstanding rent or a maximum of $5 as liquidated damages) — and 14 M.R.S. § 6001(1) routes those cases to Title 10. None of that scheme's figures are blended into this page. Commercial tenancies sit in ch. 709, subch. 2 (14 M.R.S. § 6017) and are excluded.
Rent-to-own arrangements now use this process — 14 M.R.S. § 6203-H(4)(A), as amended by PL 2025, c. 655 (emergency, effective April 13, 2026), pushes rent-to-own and option-to-purchase arrangements into the ch. 709 eviction process.
Every period is calendar days — weekend-skip templates fail here — 1 M.R.S. § 71(12) sends statutory periods that are a prerequisite to suit to M.R. Civ. P. 6(a), which excludes intermediate weekends and holidays only for periods under 7 days — and Maine has no sub-7-day eviction period, so the exclusion never operates. A template that assumes short eviction periods skip weekends will be wrong for Maine. The last day still rolls forward if it falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, and § 6005 states its writ period as 'Seven calendar days' expressly.
The real nonpayment minimum is 14 days, not 7 — § 6002(1)(C) makes the ground itself 'The tenant is 7 days or more in arrears in the payment of rent,' so the 7-day notice cannot even be written until day 7 — the true pre-filing minimum for nonpayment is 14 days. A summary that reports Maine's notice period alone understates the minimum by half.
One notice suffices on every ground — 30 + 7 is 30, not 37 — On every ground, Maine has no separate pre-termination cure notice and no second notice to quit. The tenancy terminates at expiration of the single notice (§ 6002), and the forcible entry and detainer action then lies under § 6001(1). Where a landlord wants both a no-cause and a for-cause route, § 6002 permits the 30-day and 7-day notices to be 'combined in one notice to the tenant.'
Appeal window: 7 days in practice, 30-day outer limit — § 6008(1) expires the appeal 'upon the issuance of the writ of possession pursuant to section 6005 or 30 days from the time the judgment is entered, whichever occurs first,' and § 6005 makes writ issuance automatic and mandatory — 'Seven calendar days after the judgment is entered, the court shall issue the writ of possession.' Because issuance requires no motion by the landlord, day 7 governs wherever a writ issues at all; the 30-day branch bites only where no writ issues — the landlord does not pursue one, the tenant reinstated (§ 6005 then forbids the writ), the tenant won, or the writ is stayed.
Mailed 7-day notices: an unsettled 3-day trap — M.R. Civ. P. 6(c) adds 3 days when a party must act after service by mail, and § 6002 expressly authorizes service by mail plus posting after 3 good-faith attempts — but 1 M.R.S. § 71(12) incorporates only Rule 6(a) by name, not 6(c). Whether the 3 days attach is unsettled; a landlord who counts exactly 7 days from mailing may be short.
Post-judgment reinstatement may not reach written-lease tenants — The sentence conferring the reinstatement right is expressly limited — 'in all residential tenancies at will, if the tenant pays all rental arrears ... the tenancy must be reinstated' (§ 6002(1)) — and § 6005's matching writ bar likewise speaks only of a tenancy at will terminated for rent arrearage. The pre-expiration cure (payment before the notice expires voids it) carries no such limiter. On the face of the text, a tenant under a written lease with its own termination clause has the pre-expiration cure but not the post-judgment reinstatement right. This is a reading of the statutory text, not a holding; no Maine appellate decision is cited for it.
§ 6002's own cross-references are wrong — expect the mismatch — The opening paragraph excepts 'subsections 2 and 4' from the 30-day rule and the combination sentence refers to 'a 7-day notice under subsection 2,' but the 7-day grounds are in subsection 1 (subsection 2 governs the notice's content). This appears to be legacy renumbering; the substance is unambiguous and the figures are unaffected, but anyone quoting § 6002 should expect the mismatch.
Retaliation presumption bites mainly on no-cause terminations — § 6001(3) creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation where the tenant did any of seven listed things within the 6 months before the action, and 'A writ of possession may not issue in the absence of rebuttal of the presumption of retaliation.' Critically, the presumption does NOT apply where the case is brought on a § 6002(1) ground or for violation of a lease provision — unless the tenant asserted a right under § 6026 — so it bites mainly on 30-day no-cause terminations.
Municipal rules can add requirements — no preemption — Maine does not preempt municipal regulation of tenancies: 30-A M.R.S. § 3001 grants broad home rule with a rebuttable presumption of validity, and § 3001(3) bars finding an implicit denial of municipal power unless the ordinance 'would frustrate the purpose of any state law.' At least one municipality (Portland) regulates rents and rental-housing rights through a city Rent Board. No official statewide registry of rent-control or just-cause ordinances exists, and no local eviction figures are published on this page — check ordinances directly with the municipality. Municipal rules can add requirements on top of ch. 709; do not assume they do not exist.
The 2026 session changed no eviction figure — In the 132nd Legislature, NO bill amended 14 M.R.S. §§ 6000, 6002, 6003, 6004, 6005, 6008, 6010, 6013, 6014, 6015 or 6016 — every headline figure on this page is unchanged. The only 132nd amendment to § 6001 was PL 2025, c. 139 (LD 458), which expanded the § 6001(6)(H) list of acceptable victim documentation and is already codified.
Two new 2026 laws — neither touches eviction procedure — The Judiciary Committee's official digest lists exactly two enacted landlord-tenant bills for the 2026 session, neither of which touches notice periods, FED procedure, the writ, the appeal window, or the self-help bar. PL 2025, c. 515 (LD 1927) adds mold and chronic moisture to the implied warranty of habitability in § 6021 and authorizes stricter municipal standards (law without the Governor's signature January 11, 2026; not yet reflected in the codified § 6021). PL 2025, c. 767 (LD 2176) raises the § 6025(3) entry-violation minimum from $100 to $250 and enacts § 6025-B, barring disclosure of a tenant's personal information intended to force them out outside the ch. 709 judicial process, with a $1,000 damages floor — in force since July 29, 2026.
Official pages lag the law — The Revisor's codified text states it is current through October 1, 2025 (individual pages: 'Data for this page extracted on 10/20/2025'), while the 132nd Legislature's Second Regular Session convened January 7, 2026 and adjourned sine die April 29, 2026 — so the codified site does not yet reflect 2026 enactments. The chaptered laws, linked in the citations, control.
Verified — This page states the law as of July 25, 2026, with c. 767's July 29, 2026 effective date folded in on August 2, 2026. The court rules come from the consolidated Maine Rules of Civil Procedure dated January 23, 2026, in which Rule 80D is word-for-word identical to the February 5, 2024 amended text.

Common questions: Maine eviction process

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 notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in Maine?: 7 days. The notice cannot even be written until rent is already 7 or more days in arrears, so the true minimum before filing is 14 days, not 7. Paying the full amount due before the notice expires voids it outright (14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)).
How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in Maine?: 7 days. Those 7 days are a termination period, not a cure window — the tenancy ends when the notice expires and the landlord may then file. On the non-rent grounds Maine gives the tenant no statutory right to cure once a valid notice has issued.
How long does an eviction take in Maine?: About 37 days from the first day rent is late to lockout in an uncontested nonpayment case. That is a statutory floor rather than a forecast — contested, mediated, and retaliation-defense cases run materially longer.
How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in Maine?: 7 days.
Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in Maine?: No — Maine bars self-help eviction by statute; a landlord must go through the court process. Shutting off a utility, changing the locks, or otherwise denying a tenant access without going through the court is illegal and against public policy, and the tenant recovers actual damages or $250, whichever is greater, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees (14 M.R.S. § 6014).

Statute citations

14 M.R.S. § 6001 sub-§§ 1, 1-B, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6002 opening paragraph and sub-§ 1 (grounds A-F, cure and reinstatement paragraph) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6002 sub-§ 2, ¶ A (required arrearage statement and prescribed notice language) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6003 second paragraph (hearing no later than 10 days after the return day) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6004 sub-§§ 1, 2, 3 (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6004-A sub-§ 2 (good-faith mediation requirement and sanctions) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6005 first and third paragraphs (7 calendar days to writ; 48 hours after service) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6008 sub-§ 1 (appeal expires on issuance of writ or 30 days, whichever first); sub-§§ 2, 6 (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6013 sub-§§ 1, 2 (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6014 sub-§ 1 (¶¶ A-C) and sub-§ 2 (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6015 sub-§§ 1, 2 (45-day and 75-day rent-increase notice) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6024-A sub-§§ 1-3 (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6025 sub-§§ 2, 3 (24-hour entry presumption; 7-day notice for refusing duplicate key) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6028 sub-§§ 1, 2 (15-day late-fee threshold; 4% cap) (verified 2026) Official source
1 M.R.S. § 71 sub-§ 12 (statutory time periods computed under M.R. Civ. P. 6(a)) (verified 2026) Official source
M.R. Civ. P. 6(a) Rule 6(a) (weekend/holiday exclusion only where the period is less than 7 days) (verified 2026) Official source
M.R. Civ. P. 80D Rule 80D(b)(4), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) (verified 2026) Official source
30-A M.R.S. § 3001 sub-§ 3 (standard of preemption) (verified 2026) Official source
10 M.R.S. § 9097 sub-§ 1 (separate just-cause scheme for manufactured housing communities - out of scope) (verified 2026) Official source
PL 2025, c. 767 (LD 2176) §§ 2-3 (amends 14 M.R.S. § 6025(3); enacts § 6025-B) - effective July 29, 2026 (verified 2026) Official source
Digest of Bills and Summaries of Enacted Laws, 132nd Legislature, Second Regular Session Effective-date statement and Judiciary Committee 'Landlord and Tenant Issues' summaries (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Maine Revisor of Statutes site (legislature.maine.gov): sections 6032, 6033, 6034, 6038, 6015, 6028, and 6025 of Title 14 each read twice in independent formats (the HTML section page and the Revisor's official section PDF, read verbatim), with every decisive figure matching (2-month deposit cap; 30-day-maximum/21-day return split with the later-of trigger; forfeiture rule; double damages with 7-day pre-suit notice and landlord burden; separate-bank-account rule with $500/one-month remedy; 45-day and 75-day/10% rent-increase notices with 12-month aggregation; 4% late-fee cap, 15-day late definition, and written-notice-at-inception duty; 24-hour reasonable-notice presumption with emergency/impracticable exception). PL 2023, c. 594 (LD 1490) was additionally reconciled against the enrolled chapter law PDF, which pins 'Sec. 13. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 1, 2025.' Supporting sections read once (6031, 6035, 6036, 6037, 6039, 6000, 6016, 6022-A, 6030-I, 6030-J, 6002) plus full chapter listings of ch. 709 subch. 1, ch. 710, and ch. 710-A as the sweep basis for verified negatives (no deposit interest, no other late-fee or entry provision, no rent-increase frequency limit, no preemption statute). Preemption checked via Title 30-A: former ch. 167 'Municipal Rent Control' (30-A sections 3601-3606) confirmed repealed by PL 1995, c. 194 with nothing enacted in its place, home rule under 30-A section 3001; Portland's active rent control ordinance verified from the City of Portland's own Rent Control FAQ (version 2025.10.24, Portland City Code ch. 6, secs. 6-231 to 6-239; 2026 allowable increase 2.2%). Bill checks on official status pages: LD 1534 (municipal rent-stabilization enabling) died Ought Not to Pass 2025-05-27; LD 1765 enacted as PL 2025, c. 365 (2025-06-18, mobile home park licensing/model-ordinance only); 132nd Legislature adjourned sine die 2026-04-29. Main-session supplement (2026-07-11): the full Second Regular Session public-laws list (chapters ~500-775) was swept via the Revisor's Laws of Maine service; one on-topic enactment found and flagged as pending — PL 2025, c. 767 (LD 2176), which raises the section 6025(3) entry-violation minimum recovery from $100 to $250 and enacts section 6025-B (tenant personal-information disclosure ban), effective on the session's general nonemergency effective date, 2026-07-29 (per the Legislature's published effective-date statement), so NOT in force at this verification; folded into entry_notice 2026-08-02 once effective. Two manufactured-housing acts (PL 2025, c. 688 and c. 691) checked and confirmed out of v1 scope (lot-tenancy notice/mediation and park-sale machinery; no hard rent caps).