Landlord Atlas

Maine Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Correction October 8, 2026

Local rent regulation in Maine

Maine has no state law limiting local rent regulation, and municipalities including Portland and South Portland have adopted rent control under their broad home-rule ordinance power.

Cited to 30-A M.R.S. § 3001 (home-rule ordinance power) , 30-A M.R.S. ch. 167 (former Municipal Rent Control chapter — repealed by P.L. 1995, ch. 194) · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Maine rent-increase rules →

Maine landlord-tenant laws by topic

Maine security deposits

Maine caps security deposits at two months' rent, and the landlord must return the deposit — or an itemized statement with the balance — within the time the written lease states (never more than 30 days), or within 21 days for a tenancy at will, counted from the later of termination or surrender of the premises.

Maine rent increase notice

Maine landlords must give at least 45 days' written notice before any rent increase takes effect — and at least 75 days' written notice if the increase is 10% or more, a tier added effective October 25, 2023 that also catches multiple smaller increases adding up to 10% within 12 months.

Maine late fees

Maine caps residential late fees at 4% of one month's rent and builds in a 15-day statutory grace period: a rent payment is not legally 'late' until 15 days after it was due, so with rent due on the 1st no penalty can attach before the 16th.

Maine entry notice

Maine landlords must give reasonable notice before entering a rental unit, and 24 hours is presumed reasonable unless the evidence shows otherwise, so 24 hours is the safe default, but the statute stops short of a flat 24-hour minimum.

Maine eviction process

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 can issue 7 calendar days after judgment, on the landlord's request.

Maine application & screening fees

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.

Maine deposit interest

Maine does not require landlords to pay tenants interest on a security deposit, and its deposit chapter never uses the word in a money sense.

Maine habitability & repairs

Maine law deems every landlord to covenant and warrant that a rented dwelling unit is fit for human habitation, and separately forbids a landlord to maintain or permit any condition that endangers or materially impairs the health or safety of the tenants.

Maine lease termination

Either side ends a Maine tenancy at will on a minimum of 30 days' written notice, the same figure for landlord and tenant, and no reason is required.

Maine lease disclosures

Where the tenant will pay any mandatory or optional recurring fee, a Maine lease is unenforceable unless the landlord receives a copy of the total price disclosure signed by both sides, and the disclosure must be given before the lease is entered.

Maine pets & assistance animals

Maine has no pet-deposit statute, but a refundable pet deposit is still a security deposit and counts inside the two-month cap rather than on top of it, because the law catches any advance or deposit, whatever it is called, whose primary function is to secure performance of the lease.

Maine mobile home park laws

Maine's mobile home park law, chapter 953 of Title 10, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it in a park of two or more homes, and three rules carry most of the weight: lot rent may be raised only once per calendar year and only on ninety days' written notice, a tenancy may be ended only for one of nine listed reasons, and closing the park or changing its use takes a year's written notice.

Maine Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Maine metro area and county.

Editable Maine deposit kit · Editable Maine disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Maine rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (October 1, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the Maine Revisor of Statutes site (legislature.maine.gov). October 1, 2026: every section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee, entry and eviction answers rest on was read there with its history line: 14 M.R.S. §§ 6000 to 6017, 6021-A, 6022-A, 6024-A, 6025 to 6026, 6028, 6030, 6030-H and 6031 to 6039; 1 M.R.S. § 71; 10 M.R.S. §§ 9091 to 9100; and 30-A M.R.S. § 3001, with the repealed municipal rent control chapter (former §§ 3601 to 3606). The statute pages were current through October 1, 2025 that day and do not yet print the 2026 session, so each 2026 public law that changes these answers was read in its chaptered text: P.L. 2025, c. 767 (the entry remedy and the personal-information section, in force July 29, 2026), c. 691 (lot rent in a manufactured housing community) and c. 650, Part GGGG (the Maine Eviction Prevention Program). P.L. 2023, c. 594 was read in its chaptered text for its January 1, 2025 effective date. Rule 80D of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure was read on the Judicial Branch's site, and the Portland and South Portland rent ordinances in the cities' own publications.