How many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in Maine?

45 days. An increase of 10% or more requires at least 75 days' written notice instead (14 M.R.S. §6015(2)). Smaller increases add up: if increases within a 12-month period reach 10% or more together, the 75-day notice is required before the increase that crosses the 10% line.

Does Maine preempt local rent control ordinances?

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.

Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Maine?

During a fixed term, rent cannot be raised at all unless the lease itself so provides (contract law); at renewal the §6015 notice periods apply.

How much notice is required to raise the rent in Maine?

Verified July 11, 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 The former state enabling chapter (30-A ch. 167, 'Municipal Rent Control') was repealed in 1995 with nothing enacted in its place; municipalities act under home rule (30-A §3001).

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.

Cited to 14 M.R.S. § 6015 (1)-(2) and 5 more Maine statutes · Verified July 11, 2026

Since January 1, 2025 the same 45-day notice applies to increases in mandatory recurring fees, and a written or oral waiver of these rules is void; a violating landlord must return the sums collected with interest plus the tenant's attorney's fees. Rent may never be increased while the unit is in violation of the warranty of habitability, unless the tenant caused the problem. Maine has no statewide rent control and no limit on how often or how much rent can rise (with proper notice), but it is one of the few states with no preemption of local rent control: Portland has run voter-initiated rent control since 2021 — capped at a published annual percentage (2.2% for 2026), once per 12 months, with 90 days' notice — and South Portland has a rent stabilization ordinance for larger portfolios, so landlords must check city law too.

Maine rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	45 days
Varies by increase size	An increase of 10% or more requires at least 75 days' written notice instead (14 M.R.S. §6015(2)). Smaller increases add up: if increases within a 12-month period reach 10% or more together, the 75-day notice is required before the increase that crosses the 10% line. The 75-day tier was added by PL 2023, c. 388, eff. 2023-10-25. That anti-stacking rule attaches the 75-day notice to whichever increase carries the 12-month total over 10%. The 75-day tier (only) does not apply to deed-restricted affordable housing or units under landlord- or tenant-side housing-program subsidy restrictions.
Fixed-term leases	During a fixed term, rent cannot be raised at all unless the lease itself so provides (contract law); at renewal the §6015 notice periods apply. §6015 reaches 'residential estates' generally, not just at-will tenancies — the 45/75-day written notice governs any residential rent or mandatory-recurring-fee increase. Separately, §6016 bars any rent increase while the unit violates the implied warranty of habitability (unless the violation was caused by the tenant), with waiver void and restitution plus interest and attorney's fees for violations.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	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).
Local rent regulation	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.
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Maine Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified July 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/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.

Create a Maine rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified Maine rules as this page.

Notes and caveats

45 days is an express statute, not a derivation — § 6015(1) expressly requires 45 days' notice and applies to all 'residential estates.' It is not derived from termination-notice math — the § 6002 at-will termination notice is 30 days, shorter than the rent-increase notice.
Stale-source trap: two rounds of amendments since 2023 — Pre-2023 charts say '45 days' with no 10% tier; 2024 charts miss the coverage of mandatory recurring fees. PL 2023, c. 388 (effective October 25, 2023, LD 701) added the 75-day tier, and PL 2023, c. 594 § 7 (effective January 1, 2025, LD 1490) extended the rules to 'mandatory recurring fees.'
The 75-day tier's carve-outs don't erase the 45-day floor — The subsidized and deed-restricted carve-outs apply ONLY to subsection 2 (the 75-day tier) — the 45-day floor still binds those units.
Citation trap: the obvious § 6015 URL is a dead link — The Revisor's plain URL .../title14sec6015.html returns a 404; the current text lives at the versioned page .../title14sec6015-2.html, because the successive 2023 amendments produced multiple versions of the section. Cite the -2 page.
Reverse-trap: Maine does NOT preempt local rent regulation — Some aggregator summaries claim Maine 'prohibits municipalities from enacting rent regulation' — false. The only chapter ever titled Municipal Rent Control (30-A §§ 3601-3606) was repealed by PL 1995, c. 194 § 1 and replaced with nothing. Portland (November 2020 referendum, in force since 2021) and South Portland (2023, sunset 2030) regulate rents under home rule today, and LD 1534 (2025) — a statewide opt-in framework that expressly preserved home-rule authority — died Ought Not to Pass on May 27, 2025.
Mobile-home 'rent cap' noise — what 2025 actually did — PL 2025, c. 365 (LD 1765, signed June 18, 2025) directs the state to develop a MODEL rent-stabilization ordinance for mobile-home parks. The introduced bill's CPI+1%/5% hard caps were amended out — so 'Maine capped mobile-home rents' is a debunk, not a fact.
New lot-rent rules for parks (outside this page's scope) — Manufactured-housing lot tenancies are out of scope here, but the landscape moved twice: 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (enacted 2025 by PL 2025, c. 399) now requires 90 days' notice of lot-rent and fee increases with tenant mediation rights, and PL 2025, c. 691 (LD 2231, chaptered text, effective July 28, 2026) adds a once-per-calendar-year lot-rent-increase limit and expanded notice contents — area-average and CPI+1% comparison disclosures that are mediation triggers, not hard caps. Park guidance should not be sourced from the pre-2025 § 9093(2)-only description.
No state limit on increase frequency — Portland's is local — Maine state law sets no limit on how often rent may be raised — ch. 709, subch. 1 contains no frequency provision. Portland's once-per-12-months rule is a local ordinance, not state law.
Verified — The § 6015 figures come from the Revisor's official statutory text and the enrolled text of PL 2023, c. 594.

Common questions: Maine rent increase notice

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 many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in Maine?: 45 days. An increase of 10% or more requires at least 75 days' written notice instead (14 M.R.S. §6015(2)). Smaller increases add up: if increases within a 12-month period reach 10% or more together, the 75-day notice is required before the increase that crosses the 10% line.
Does Maine have rent control?: No — Maine has no statewide rent control or stabilization. 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.
Does Maine preempt local rent control ordinances?: 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.
Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Maine?: During a fixed term, rent cannot be raised at all unless the lease itself so provides (contract law); at renewal the §6015 notice periods apply.
How often can a landlord raise the rent in Maine?: Not addressed by statute.

Statute citations

14 M.R.S. § 6015 (1)-(2) (verified 2026) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6016 (verified 2026) Official source
PL 2023, c. 594, § 7 (LD 1490, enacted chapter law, eff. 2025-01-01) secs. 7, 13 (verified 2026) Official source
30-A M.R.S. § 3001 (home rule ordinance power) (verified 2026) Official source
30-A M.R.S. ch. 167, §§ 3601-3606 (former Municipal Rent Control chapter — repealed, PL 1995, c. 194) (verified 2026) Official source
City of Portland, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ (Portland City Code ch. 6, secs. 6-231 to 6-239; version 2025.10.24) (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).