What are the security deposit rules 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.

What the state record says

No statewide rent control or percentage cap (§6016's habitability bar is a condition on increases, not a cap). Maine does NOT preempt local rent control: Portland has operated voter-initiated rent control since 2021 (Portland City Code ch. 6, secs. 6-231 to 6-239) — 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 has 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 The former state enabling chapter (30-A ch. 167, 'Municipal Rent Control') was repealed in 1995 with nothing enacted in its place; municipalities act under home rule (30-A §3001).

Pending legislation — not yet law. The rules on this page reflect current law only. The following bill would change it if enacted:

LD 2176 (2026) — PL 2025, c. 767 — Three sections: (1) amends 14 M.R.S. § 6025(3) to raise the remedy for unlawful entry, unreasonable-manner entry, or harassment-by-repeated-demands from the greater of actual damages or $100 to the greater of actual damages or $250 (injunction and post-contested-hearing attorney's fees unchanged); (2) enacts 14 M.R.S. § 6025-B barring a landlord from disclosing tenant/applicant personal information with intent to harass, intimidate, or force a vacate outside the judicial process (remedy: greater of actual damages or $1,000, injunction, fees after contested hearing; exceptions for legal process, law enforcement, sale/refinancing, housing-program administration, and code officers); (3) adds § 6025-B to the harassment-injunction predicate list in 5 M.R.S. § 4651(2)(C). Chaptered text read in full from the Revisor's Laws of Maine service.Status: Enacted, 132nd Legislature Second Regular Session (S.P. 881); chaptered as PL 2025, c. 767. No emergency clause or effective-date section in the chaptered text, so it takes effect 90 days after the 2026-04-29 sine die adjournment — 2026-07-28 — and is NOT law on 2026-07-11. Incorporate the $250 entry-remedy figure into entry_notice at the first session on/after 2026-07-28. (checked 2026-07-11).

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.

Nothing may be kept for normal wear and tear, the deposit must sit in a bank account separate from the landlord's own money (disclosed to the tenant on request), and no forwarding address or demand is required — mailing to the tenant's last known address suffices. Miss the deadline and you forfeit the right to keep any of it; wrongfully retain it after the tenant's 7-day warning letter and you owe double the amount withheld plus the tenant's attorney's fees, with the burden on you to prove the withholding was justified. The account rule carries its own penalty of at least $500 or one month's rent. The entire chapter skips owner-occupied buildings of five or fewer units, and since January 1, 2025 landlords may not collect any move-in money beyond first month's rent, the deposit, and disclosed recurring fees.

Maine security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	2 months' rent — A lease or tenancy-at-will agreement 'may not require a security deposit equivalent to more than the rent for 2 months' (14 M.R.S. §6032). 'Security deposit' is defined by function — any advance or deposit of money whose primary function is to secure performance (§6031(2)) — so pet deposits and similar charges count toward the same 2-month ceiling. The whole chapter (cap included) does not apply to a tenancy in a structure of 5 or fewer units, one of which the landlord occupies, or to deposits held by a lessor-mortgagor under a federally guaranteed mortgage (§6037). Since January 1, 2025, §6022-A separately caps total move-in money at first month's rent + the §6032 deposit + properly disclosed mandatory recurring fees.
Return deadline	30 days
Deadline conditions	Dual track (14 M.R.S. §6033(2)): under a WRITTEN rental agreement, the deposit (or the itemized statement with the balance) is due 'within the time, not to exceed 30 days, stated in the agreement' — the lease's stated period governs and 30 days is only the ceiling the lease may not exceed. For a TENANCY AT WILL, the deadline is 21 days after the termination of the tenancy or the surrender and acceptance of the premises, whichever occurs LATER. No tenant demand is required; the landlord is deemed to have complied by mailing the statement and any payment to the tenant's last known address.
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	If there is 'actual cause' to retain any portion, the landlord must provide a written statement itemizing the reasons, and the statement 'must be accompanied by a full payment of the difference' between the deposit and the amount retained (§6033(2)). Nothing may be retained for normal wear and tear (§6033(1)), which §6031(1) defines as deterioration without negligence, carelessness, accident or abuse. Permitted retention reasons include, but are not limited to, storing and disposing of unclaimed property, unpaid rent, and utility charges the tenant owed directly to the landlord.
Separate account required	Yes
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	No interest requirement anywhere in ch. 710-A (verified negative, full sweep of §§6031-6039 twice). But the deposit may not be commingled with the landlord's assets and must be held in a bank or financial-institution account insulated from the landlord's creditors, foreclosing mortgagees, and bankruptcy trustees; on request the landlord must disclose the institution name and account number; a single escrow account for all tenants is allowed (§6038(1)). Violation of §6038 carries its own remedy: the greatest of actual damages, $500, or one month's rent, plus costs and possible attorney's fees (§6038(2)). Charts crediting Maine tenants with deposit interest are importing the mobile-home-park LOT rules (10 M.R.S. §9098) into ordinary rentals.
Pet deposits	No separate pet-deposit statute. Because §6031(2) defines 'security deposit' by function ('the primary function of which is to secure' performance), a refundable pet deposit is a security deposit — it counts toward the 2-month cap and is subject to the same return, itemization, account, and penalty rules.
Non-refundable fees allowed	No
Penalty for violation	Missing the §6033 deadline forfeits the right to withhold ANY portion of the deposit (§6033(3)). Wrongful retention makes the landlord liable for DOUBLE the portion wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney's fees and court costs (§6034(2)). Before suing, the tenant must give 7 days' notice of intent to sue; if the landlord does not return the entire deposit within those 7 days, wrongful retention is PRESUMED, and in court the landlord bears the burden of proving the withholding was not wrongful (§6034(1), (3)). Separate §6038 account violations: greatest of actual damages, $500, or one month's rent, plus costs.
Tenant forwarding-address duty	None. The landlord is deemed compliant by mailing the itemized statement and payment to the tenant's LAST KNOWN address (§6033(2)); the deadline does not wait for a forwarding address or a demand.

Notes and caveats

Encoding: return_deadline_days=30 is the statutory OUTER BOUND for written leases (§6033(2)(A) — the lease's stated time, up to 30 days, governs); tenancies at will get 21 days from the LATER of termination or surrender-and-acceptance — render both tracks. Traps: (1) charts stating a flat '30 days' miss both the lease-stated-time mechanism and the 21-day at-will track; (2) Hemlane-style claims of a one-month cap for elderly/disabled tenants and 'accrued interest' have NO basis in ch. 710-A — the one-month cap is Portland's LOCAL ordinance (City Code sec. 6-223.2) and interest/segregation extras are mobile-home-park LOT law (10 M.R.S. §9098, where the cap is 3 months and the 21-day trigger is whichever occurs FIRST); (3) the §6037 owner-occupied ≤5-unit exemption removes the whole chapter (cap, deadlines, double damages) for many small landlords — few charts mention it. nonrefundable_fees_allowed=false: no statute uses the term, but §6022-A (eff. 2025-01-01) bars requiring any initial payment beyond rent + deposit + disclosed mandatory recurring fees, and §6030(2)(E) voids lease-termination fee clauses outside three cost-recovery carve-outs, so a nonrefundable move-in fee is effectively unlawful; deposits are refundable by definition (§6031(2)). §6039 lets a tenant offer (and landlord accept but not require) a surety bond in lieu; bond plus deposit may not exceed two months' rent. On sale, §6035 requires transfer-with-accounting or return by closing, and the buyer assumes the obligations (§6038(1)). Waivers void (§6036). All load-bearing figures double-read (official HTML + Revisor PDF verbatim).

Statute citations

14 M.R.S. § 6032 Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6033 (1)-(3) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6034 (1)-(3) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6038 (1)-(3) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6031 (1)-(2) Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6037 Official source
14 M.R.S. § 6022-A (1) Official source
PL 2023, c. 594 (LD 1490, enacted chapter law, eff. 2025-01-01) secs. 8, 13 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 load-bearing 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 90 days after the 2026-04-29 adjournment (2026-07-28), so NOT in force at this verification. 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).