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?

No Maine statute sets a separate rule for raising rent during a fixed term: the lease's own terms decide whether the rent can change during the term, and any increase, during the term or at renewal, needs the §6015 written notice.

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

Verified October 1, 2026 All Maine topics →

Check your municipality. Maine does not preempt local rent regulation — city or county ordinances may impose rent caps, notice periods, and fee limits that are stricter than the state law on this page. 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 at least two cities, Portland and South Portland, 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 units whose owner, counting affiliates, owns 16 or more housing 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 (Ordinance No. 17-22/23 of February 21, 2023; a 10% annual cap for units whose owner, counting affiliates, owns 16 or more housing units; automatically repealed May 27, 2030 unless renewed). 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 cited sources · Verified October 1, 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 state limit on how often or how much the rent of an ordinary rental can rise (with proper notice), and it does not preempt 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	No Maine statute sets a separate rule for raising rent during a fixed term: the lease's own terms decide whether the rent can change during the term, and any increase, during the term or at renewal, needs the §6015 written notice. §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 at least two cities, Portland and South Portland, 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 units whose owner, counting affiliates, owns 16 or more housing 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 (Ordinance No. 17-22/23 of February 21, 2023; a 10% annual cap for units whose owner, counting affiliates, owns 16 or more housing units; automatically repealed May 27, 2030 unless renewed). 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 October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/maine/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Create a Maine rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified Maine law 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. 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 former Municipal Rent Control chapter of Title 30-A (§§ 3601-3606) was repealed by PL 1995, c. 194, § 1, and none of its sections is in force today. 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's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future to develop a MODEL rent stabilization ordinance for use by municipalities, alongside studies of support for manufactured housing community homeowners. The introduced bill's CPI+1%/5% hard caps on mobile home park rent and fee increases 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 in 2025 by P.L. 2025, c. 399) requires 90 days' notice of lot-rent and fee increases with a resident mediation route, and P.L. 2025, c. 691 (L.D. 2231, effective July 29, 2026) adds a once-per-calendar-year lot-rent increase limit, replaces the area-average rent disclosures with the twelve-month Northeast consumer price index change, and lets residents seek mediation of an increase larger than that change plus one percent. None of it is a hard cap. Park guidance should not be sourced from the pre-2025 § 9093(2)-only description.
No state limit on increase frequency for ordinary rentals — Portland's is local — Maine state law sets no limit on how often the rent of an ordinary residential tenancy 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. Lot rent in a manufactured housing community is different: since July 29, 2026 it may rise only once per calendar year (10 M.R.S. § 9093-B(1-A)).
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 at least two cities, Portland and South Portland, 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 units whose owner, counting affiliates, owns 16 or more housing 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?: No Maine statute sets a separate rule for raising rent during a fixed term: the lease's own terms decide whether the rent can change during the term, and any increase, during the term or at renewal, needs the §6015 written notice.
How often can a landlord raise the rent in Maine?: Not addressed by 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 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.