Free Maine Rent Increase Notice

▶ Watch overview

Maine has no statewide rent cap on how much you can raise the rent, but state law sets a firm notice rule: under 14 M.R.S. 6015 you must give at least 45 days’ written notice before the new rent takes effect – and at least 75 days’ notice when the increase is 10% or more. The increase also cannot be retaliatory. Generate a clean notice below.

45-day (75 if 10%+) 14 M.R.S. 6015 Maine Free PDF

This Maine Rent Increase Notice raises the rent on a residential tenancy. Maine sets no statewide cap on the amount, but 14 M.R.S. 6015 requires at least 45 days’ written notice before the increase takes effect – and at least 75 days’ when the increase is 10% or more (including increases that add up to 10% or more within a 12-month period). A waiver of that notice is void, and the increase may not be retaliatory under 14 M.R.S. 6001(3). Our how to raise rent guide covers the timing, and the tenant screening laws by state hub helps you place reliable tenants in the first place.

Complete the fields below to generate a Maine rent increase notice. The new rent and effective date must give the tenant the full statutory notice period. Service should comply with applicable Maine law; retain proof of service.

A Maine rent increase notice is the written notice a landlord gives to raise the rent on a residential tenancy. Maine is a market-rate state: there is no statewide rent control and no statutory cap on how much the rent can go up. What state law regulates instead is how much notice the tenant must get and why the increase is being made. The governing statute is 14 M.R.S. 6015, titled “Notice of rent or mandatory recurring fee increase,” and it sets a two-tier notice rule that a Maine landlord has to get right before the new rent can take effect.

Under the first tier, a landlord may increase the rent – or a mandatory recurring fee – charged for a residential estate only after giving the tenant at least 45 days’ written notice. Under the second tier, if the increase is 10% or more, the landlord must give at least 75 days’ written notice. The 75-day rule is not limited to a single jump: if a landlord raises the rent more than once within a 12-month period and the increases add up to a total of 10% or more, the 75-day notice applies to any increase that brings the running total to 10% or more. That aggregation rule is easy to miss – two seemingly small increases a few months apart can cross the 10% line and require the longer notice. The notice runs before the increase takes effect, so the landlord counts the 45 or 75 days from when the tenant receives the notice and sets the effective date after that period closes.

The notice cannot be bargained away. Section 6015 states that a written or oral waiver of the notice requirement is against public policy and void, so a landlord cannot have a tenant agree to a shorter notice, even in the lease. A landlord who violates the section is liable to the tenant for the return of any sums unlawfully obtained, with interest, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs – which makes a short or skipped notice an expensive mistake. The 75-day tier does not apply to housing that already carries affordability restrictions or is governed by a subsidy program, where separate program rules set the terms of an increase.

Even with proper notice, an increase can be unlawful because of its motive. 14 M.R.S. 6001(3) creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation when a landlord raises the rent, terminates, or refuses to renew within six months after the tenant has asserted a right – for example, complaining in good faith to a code-enforcement or health authority about a condition affecting health or safety, requesting repairs in writing, asserting a right under section 6015, filing a fair-housing complaint, or reporting being a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or sexual harassment. If the presumption is not rebutted, the increase is treated as retaliatory and cannot stand. Federal and Maine fair housing law independently bar an increase aimed at a tenant because of a protected characteristic.

Two points often get tangled and should be kept separate. First, the 45/75-day rent-increase notice under section 6015 is not the same as the notice to end a tenancy. Under 14 M.R.S. 6002, either the landlord or the tenant can terminate a tenancy at will on at least 30 days’ written notice – that 30-day notice ends the tenancy; it does not authorize a rent increase, and it does not shorten the 6015 notice. Second, the “no statewide cap” rule does not mean there is never a cap. Maine permits local rent control, and Portland’s voter-enacted ordinance caps annual increases for units in that city at 70% of the change in the Consumer Price Index for the Greater Boston metro area – about 2.2% for 2026 – with just-cause and relocation protections, administered by the Portland Housing Safety Office. For a Portland rental, the landlord has to satisfy both the state notice rule and the city’s allowed-increase cap. Outside a city with its own ordinance, there is no cap on the amount.

Because Maine sets no required method to serve a rent-increase notice, the practical standard is provable written delivery within the notice period. Personal delivery to the tenant, service left at the premises with a mailed copy, certified mail with a return receipt, or first-class mail all work; email or a tenant portal is fine only when the lease or tenant authorizes electronic notice and you document it. Whatever the method, the notice should state the current rent, the new rent, and the effective date, and the landlord should keep a signed, dated copy with proof of delivery. Our how to raise rent guide walks through the timing, and screening applicants with verified reports keeps tenancies stable so the increases you serve actually stick.

Put together, a clean Maine increase is simple but exact: choose the right notice from the percentage – 45 days under 10%, 75 days at 10% or more, watching the 12-month aggregation – never ask the tenant to waive it, keep no mid-term change on a written lease, stay outside the six-month retaliation bar of section 6001(3), satisfy any local cap such as Portland’s, deliver the written notice with proof, and set the effective date only after the full period runs. None of this replaces the screening you do at move-in – a tenant chosen for steady income and a clean payment history is the one most likely to absorb a lawful increase without a dispute.

Maine sets no limit on how often a landlord can raise the rent. No statewide statute caps the number of increases in a year; the only statewide timing controls are the notice periods in 14 M.R.S. 6015 and the 12-month aggregation rule that comes with them. A landlord may raise the rent on a tenancy at will as often as the notice rule allows, provided each increase is preceded by at least 45 days’ written notice – or at least 75 days when that increase, by itself or combined with other increases in the prior 12 months, reaches 10% or more.

That aggregation rule is what makes frequency matter. Because separate increases that add up to 10% or more within a 12-month window trigger the 75-day tier, a landlord who raises the rent in small, repeated steps moves onto the longer notice as soon as the running total crosses 10%. The statute does not forbid frequent increases, but it slows them down once they become large. A fixed-term lease is different: the rent is locked for the term and cannot be raised again until renewal unless the lease has an escalation clause.

Local ordinances can be stricter. In Portland, the voter-enacted rent-control ordinance caps the total increase for a covered unit at the local CPI change each year, which effectively limits an in-city landlord to one allowed increase per year rather than the open-ended state default. Outside a municipality with its own ordinance, the state notice rule is the only timing constraint.

Maine’s 45-day / 75-day notice structure took effect on October 25, 2023. The Legislature created the 75-day tier and the 12-month aggregation rule in Public Law 2023, chapter 388, and amended the surrounding provisions of 14 M.R.S. 6015 – including the non-waiver language and the tenant’s remedy for the return of unlawfully collected sums with interest and fees – in Public Law 2023, chapter 594. Before this change a shorter notice period was common; today every private residential rent increase in Maine runs on the 45-day or 75-day clock.

The recency matters because older leases, form notices, and web templates still in circulation often reflect the pre-2023 rule and give too little notice. If you are working from a saved template, confirm it reflects the current two-tier rule and the 12-month aggregation before you serve it.