Maine Month-to-Month Lease Agreement

Minimum Termination: A landlord or tenant may terminate a month-to-month lease by providing at least 30 days’ written notice prior to the anticipated termination date (§ 6002(1)). The city of Portland requires landlords to provide 90 days’ written notice to terminate a lease without cause. Portland landlords may reduce this notice period to 60 or 30 days if they compensate the tenant with one or two months’ rent, respectively (§ 6-236(a)).

Increasing Rent: Maine has no statewide cap on rent increases, but Portland and South Portland have enacted their own rent control ordinances. Several other municipalities apply rent control specifically for mobile homes.

State law requires landlords to provide at least 45 days’ written notice before a rent increase can go into effect (§ 6015(1)). If the rent increase is 10% or more, the state law dictates that landlords provide at least 75 days’ written notice (§ 6015(2)). Portland and South Portland both enforce a mandatory 90-day notice period and only allow for one rent increase per year.