Rent Increase Notices Advisory

Maine law requires landlords to provide tenants with advance, written, notice of rent increases. See 14 M.R.S.A. § 6015. This requirement applies to any type of rental housing, including rented mobile homes, and it cannot be waived.

Updates to this law now require that for a rent increase of 10% or more, a landlord must provide a tenant at least 75 days’ written notice. This includes scenarios in which a landlord has increased rent more than once in a 12-month period. For example, if a landlord increases rent by 5%, and then by another 5% within the same year, the landlord must give at least 75 days’ notice of the second increase. For rent increases of less than 10%, 45 days’ written notice is required to be provided to a tenant. If a landlord is in violation, a tenant may be entitled to recover rent, interest, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs from the landlord.

For more information about Maine’s landlord-tenant and mobile home laws, see Chapter 14 and Chapter 15 of the Attorney General’s Consumer Law Guide.

Please contact the Office of the Attorney General to file a complaint if you believe your rent has been unlawfully raised.

https://www.maine.gov/ag/consumer/complaints/index.shtml