How to become a landlord in Maine

Maine requires several written disclosures before a tenant signs or pays a deposit. One decides whether the lease can be enforced: if the tenant will pay any mandatory or optional recurring fee, give a plain written total price disclosure listing the rent, each recurring fee, utility service costs and any other cost the tenant will pay, signed by both of you with a copy to each. A lease is unenforceable if you do not receive the signed disclosure (14 M.R.S. § 6030-J; 14 M.R.S. § 6030(4)).

• Radon: within 30 days of receiving new test results for existing tenants, and before a new tenant signs or pays a deposit, give written notice in the form the Department of Health and Human Services prescribes of the date and result of the most recent radon test, whether mitigation was done, the tenant's right to test and the risk of radon (14 M.R.S. § 6030-D(2)).
• Buildings had to be tested for radon by March 1, 2014, and must be retested every 10 years when a tenant asks unless a mitigation system is installed; a building first occupied after that date must be tested within 12 months. Failing to give the radon notice is a breach of the warranty of habitability, and a violation can bring a fine of up to $250. Report each radon test result you obtain or accept to the Department of Health and Human Services within 30 days of receiving it (14 M.R.S. § 6030-D(1), (4); 14 M.R.S. § 6030-D(7)).
• Energy: if the tenant will pay for an energy supply, give the residential energy efficiency disclosure statement before the tenant signs or pays a deposit, have both of you sign it and keep it 3 years. You may instead name the prior energy suppliers in the application with the statement that the tenant may get a 12-month usage and cost history from them (14 M.R.S. § 6030-C(1), (2); 35-A M.R.S. § 10117(1)).
• Starting January 1, 2030, a tenant who did not receive the signed energy statement may end the lease on 30 days' written notice (14 M.R.S. § 6030-C(3)).
• Smoking: give written notice whether smoking is prohibited, allowed everywhere or allowed in named areas, and get the tenant's written acknowledgment before the tenant signs or pays a deposit (14 M.R.S. § 6030-E(2), (3)).
• Bedbugs: before renting, disclose any adjacent unit currently infested with or being treated for bedbugs, and on request the last date the unit or adjacent units were inspected and found free of them (14 M.R.S. § 6021-A(2)(D)).
• Lead: at least 30 days before repair, renovation or remodeling work that may disturb lead-based paint in a rental building built before 1978, post a sign on the exterior entry doors and send notice by certified mail to every unit; you may give shorter notice only if you still post the sign and get the statutory written waiver and acknowledgment from one adult tenant of each unit. Emergency repairs are exempt (14 M.R.S. § 6030-B(3)).
• The Attorney General must post a model residential lease that includes the disclosures and documents a lease must carry, updated every odd-numbered year (14 M.R.S. § 6030-K).

Maine's landlord-tenant chapters, read in full, do not require you to give the tenant a written statement of the owner's name and address. Anyone authorized to sign a lease for the owner is treated as the owner's agent for service of court papers and for receiving notices and demands (14 M.R.S. § 6023).

• On request you must tell the tenant the name of the institution holding the deposit and the account number (14 M.R.S. § 6038(1)).See Where the deposit is held, and interest on the Maine page

No section of Maine's landlord-tenant chapters (14 M.R.S. chapters 709, 710 and 710-A, read in full) requires a flood zone or flood history disclosure to a tenant. Other Maine laws were not checked for one (14 M.R.S. ch. 709; 14 M.R.S. ch. 710; 14 M.R.S. ch. 710-A).

• The disclosures these chapters do require cover radon, energy costs, smoking, bedbugs, lead work and total price (14 M.R.S. § 6030-J).See Required disclosures on the Maine page

At the time of each occupancy you must provide working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors if they are not already there, and repair or replace them after the tenant tells you in writing about a problem. The tenant must keep them working, including keeping charged batteries in them, and may not disable them (25 M.R.S. § 2464(9); 25 M.R.S. § 2468(5)).

• Each unit in a multifamily building must have smoke detectors installed to the manufacturer's requirements, and buildings over 3 stories need them in every corridor and hallway on each floor (25 M.R.S. § 2464(2-A), (3)).
• A smoke detector installed or replaced within 20 feet of a kitchen or a bathroom with a tub or shower must be photoelectric, except that ionization detectors are allowed in bedrooms (25 M.R.S. § 2464(2-A)).
• Each unit in a multifamily building needs at least one carbon monoxide detector in each area within or giving access to bedrooms (25 M.R.S. § 2468(2)).
• In a single-family rental you may install 10-year sealed, tamper-resistant battery smoke detectors (25 M.R.S. § 2464(9)(C)).
• If a deaf or hard-of-hearing occupant asks, provide a suitable smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector; if you do not, the occupant may install one and deduct the actual cost from rent, and may not be penalized for doing so (25 M.R.S. § 2464(8); 25 M.R.S. § 2468(3)).

Maine's landlord-tenant chapters, read in full, do not require deadbolts or other security devices or rekeying between tenants. They regulate lock changes by the tenant: a tenant may not change a lock without telling you and giving you a duplicate key within 48 hours (14 M.R.S. ch. 709; 14 M.R.S. ch. 710; 14 M.R.S. ch. 710-A).

• A victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking may change the locks at the victim's own expense and must give you a duplicate key within 72 hours (14 M.R.S. § 6025(1)).
• If a tenant changes a lock and refuses to give you a duplicate key, section 6025(3) allows termination with seven days' notice. In an emergency, where a changed lock leaves you without a key, you may enter by reasonable means and charge reasonable costs of resulting damage. Follow the required notice and court process (14 M.R.S. § 6025(3)).See Notice for a lease violation on the Maine page

A lease or tenancy at will may not require a security deposit of more than two months' rent. A security deposit is any advance of money, whatever it is called, whose main purpose is to secure the tenant's performance of the rental agreement (14 M.R.S. § 6032; 14 M.R.S. § 6031(2)).

• When a tenancy starts you may not require more than the first full month's rent, the security deposit and any mandatory recurring fee properly disclosed on a signed total price disclosure (14 M.R.S. § 6022-A(1)).See Required disclosures on the Maine page
• You may offer a tenant the option of buying a surety bond in place of some or all of the deposit, but you may not require one. The bond and any deposit together may not exceed two months' rent (14 M.R.S. § 6039(1); 14 M.R.S. § 6039(3)).
• If the tenant pays any part of the deposit in cash, give a receipt at the time showing the date, amount, the party it is paid for, the period, that it is for the security deposit, and the signature and printed name of the person receiving it; a rent card with that information also works (14 M.R.S. § 6022(1), (2)).
• The deposit chapter does not apply to a unit in a building of five or fewer units where you live in one of them, and the cash receipt rule has the same exemption (14 M.R.S. § 6037(2); 14 M.R.S. § 6022(3)).

Keep deposits in an account at a bank or other financial institution, never mixed with your own assets, under terms that put them beyond the reach of your creditors (including a foreclosing lender or bankruptcy trustee) and allow transfer to a new owner or the tenant. On request, tell the tenant the name of the institution and the account number. Maine's deposit chapter, read in full, does not require you to pay interest on a deposit (14 M.R.S. § 6038(1)).

• One escrow account may hold the deposits of all your tenants (14 M.R.S. § 6038(1)).
• If a court finds a violation, the tenant recovers actual damages, $500 or one month's rent, whichever is greatest, plus reasonable costs, and the court may award attorney's fees (14 M.R.S. § 6038(2)).
• After a transfer of the property, the new owner takes on the duty to hold and return the deposits it received (14 M.R.S. § 6038(1); 14 M.R.S. § 6035(2)).

Maine's landlord-tenant chapters, read in full, do not require a move-in checklist or condition report. A dated written record still helps you separate normal wear and tear from damage when you itemize deposit deductions (14 M.R.S. ch. 709; 14 M.R.S. ch. 710; 14 M.R.S. ch. 710-A).

• Normal wear and tear is deterioration from intended use without negligence, carelessness, accident or abuse. It does not include the cost of removing trash or other things the tenant abandoned (14 M.R.S. § 6031(1)).

You may not charge a fee to submit an application or to review or approve one. The only exception: you may charge the actual cost of one background check, one credit check or one other screening process, but only after telling the applicant that the law requires you to give them a complete copy of what the check returns, and you must then give it (14 M.R.S. § 6030-H).

• You may not charge the same applicant more than one screening fee in any 12-month period (14 M.R.S. § 6030-H(3)).