Maine Eviction Laws and Eviction

A reference of Maine Eviction Laws, and steps of the Maine eviction process for landlords and renters, updated 2022.

• What are the reasons that landlords can evict tenants under Maine eviction laws?
  • Non-payment of rent (14 M.R.S.§6002 (1)(C)).
  • Non-compliance with the lease agreement (14 M.R.S.§6002).
  • Tenant remains in possession of the dwelling unit after the occupancy period without the landlord’s permission (14 M.R.S.§6002).What notice do Maine eviction laws require that landlords provide tenants before starting the eviction process?
    • Most evictions in Maine require the landlord to provide a 30-day notice to the tenant, including to end a month-to-month tenancy (14 M.R.S.§6002).
    • A 7-day notice can be used in the following situations (14 M.R.S.§6002 (1)(A)-(F)):
      • Failure to pay rent (14 M.R.S.§6002 (1)(C)). The notice must state the amount of rent that is seven days or more in arrears as of the date of the notice. The notice must also state: “If you pay the amount of rent due as of the date of this notice before this notice expires, then this notice as it applies to rent arrearage is void. After this notice expires, if you pay all rental arrears, all rent due as of the date of payment and any filing fees and service of process fees actually paid by the landlord before the writ of possession issues at the completion of the eviction process, then your tenancy will be reinstated.” (14 M.R.S.§6002 (2)(A)).
      • The tenant, his or her family, or his or her invitee has caused substantial damage to the rental property and has not repaired the damage
      • The tenant, his or her family, or his or her invitee has caused a nuisance on the property or caused the rental property to become uninhabitable
      • The tenant, his or her family, or his or her invitee has violated a law regarding the tenancy
      • The tenant has perpetrated domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking and the victim is also a tenant
      • The tenant, the tenant’s invitee, or the tenant’s guest is a perpetrator of violence, threat of violence, or sexual assault against another tenant, tenant’s guest, landlord, or landlord’s employee or agent
      • The person occupying the rental property is not an authorized occupant

• Do Maine eviction laws allow landlords to use “self-help eviction” methods, such as locking a tenant out of the rental unit or shutting off the utilities? 
  • No. Maine law prohibits landlords from denying access to a tenant to the rental unit or their property or interrupting or terminating their utility service. The court can award actual damages or $250, whichever is greater. (14 M.R.S.§6014).

Maine Eviction Process: Step-by-Step

The eviction process in Maine involves these six steps:

1. Serve the Eviction Notice. The landlord must provide the tenant with the appropriate eviction notice. The notice must state the specific ground for the eviction. (14 M.R.S.§6002 (2)). The landlord must try to personally serve the tenant with the notice in the tenant’s hand. If the landlord or the landlord’s agent has attempted personal service at least three times in good faith, then the landlord can mail the notice by first class mail to the tenant’s last known address and by leaving the notice at the tenant’s last known place of abode. (14 M.R.S.§6002 (1)).
2. File Legal Paperwork. If the tenant does not leave the property by the deadline included in the eviction notice, the landlord can seek judicial relief. The official eviction process in Maine begins with the filing of a Complaint for Forcible Entry and Detainer, which sets out the reason(s) for eviction. The landlord must also obtain a Forcible Entry and Detainer Summons from the clerk’s office. The landlord will need to ask the Clerk of the District Court for the next Forcible Entry and Detainer status conferences and select one. This date will be included on the summons. The legal papers are filed in the district court of the county where the property is located.
3. Serve the Tenant. The landlord must try to personally serve the tenant with the legal papers. If the landlord makes three good faith efforts on three different days, the landlord can mail the papers to the tenant and post a notice at their last known place of abode. (14 M.R.S.§6004). These papers must be served on the tenant at least seven days before the hearing date. If the landlord serves the tenant by mailing and posting the papers, the landlord must file an affidavit with the court stating this.
4. Gather Evidence. The parties should gather relevant evidence for the case that proves their claims or disproves the claims of the other party. The parties can present this evidence at the hearing. Such evidence may include:

• A copy of the lease
• Payment records
• Photos of the property
• Evidence that the tenant breached the lease

5. Obtain an Eviction Order. If the landlord proves that they are entitled to the eviction, the court will issue a judgment for eviction. The order gives a deadline for the tenant to vacate the property. If that time comes and goes and the tenant remains on the property, the county sheriff can physically remove the tenant.

Eviction Process by State

While the specific actions landlords and tenants must take may vary from state to state, in general, evictions tend to follow the outline below, regardless of where in the United States the rental unit is located.

Step 1: Lease Expires or Is Violated

Landlords can evict tenants for a variety of different reasons depending on the state.

Typically, landlords must have a valid reason to evict a tenant unless the lease/rental agreement has expired, such as nonpayment of rent, illegal activity, and lease violations.

Several states also include things like health/safety violations or sale of the rental unit as acceptable reasons to evict a tenant, as well.

In most states (though not all), tenants can be evicted simply because their lease has expired and the landlord doesn’t want to renew, even if the tenant has not violated the lease in any way.

Some states, like New Jersey, have very specific reasons tenants can be evicted, while other states are vague about when it’s acceptable to evict tenants. It’s essential for both landlords and tenants to understand the allowable reasons for eviction in their state.

Nonpayment of Rent

Landlords are allowed to evict a tenant in most states for failing to pay their rent on time. “On time” means different things in different states, with some states allowing grace periods for late rent while others don’t.

In addition, some states allow tenants the opportunity to pay past-due rent and avoid eviction, while other states don’t.

Lease Violations

Lease violations could include things like damaging the rental property, having too many people residing in the rental unit, and having a pet when there’s a no-pet policy.

Illegal Activity

Illegal activity could include anything from possessing and/or selling/manufacturing controlled substances, to gang activity, assault, felonies, murder, and domestic abuse. Each state has its own regulations about what constitutes “illegal activity” for eviction purposes.

Lease / Rental Term Expiration

Expiration of a lease/rental agreement or a rental term can be a valid reason for eviction, as well. The notice period is typically tied to the type of tenancy, with week-to-week tenants usually receiving 7 days’ written notice and month-to-month tenants typically receiving 30 days’ written notice.

If the rental unit is in a state that does not require written notice prior to beginning an eviction action, landlords may skip directly to step 4 below.

Step 2: Notice to Vacate / Correct Lease Violation

Most states require landlords to give their tenants written notice before they can move forward with an eviction. This notice will typically give tenants a certain amount of time to:

• Pay past due rent
• Correct a lease violation
• OR move out

The amount of time the notice gives tenants to correct an issue or move out varies from state to state and can depend on the reason for eviction and/or how long a tenant has lived in the rental unit.

Once the deadline in the notice has expired, landlords may continue with the eviction process.

For states that don’t require written notice, as soon as the lease has expired or has been violated in some way, landlords may file an eviction action with the court. This means that the summons requiring tenants to appear in court may be the first time tenants are aware they’re being evicted.

Step 3: Tenant Fails to Move Out / Correct the Violation

This step only applies in states that require prior written notice.

For those states, if the tenant moves out or corrects the issue that caused the lease violation prior to the deadline given in the notice, then the tenant will not be required to move out and the eviction process will be stopped.

However, if the tenant is not able to correct the issue, or isn’t given the option to correct the issue and fails to move out by the deadline in the notice, then the landlord can proceed with the next step in the eviction process, which is filing an eviction action with the court.

How long tenants have to move out/correct a lease violation depends on whether or not their state requires prior written notice and if so, how much notice is required for the specific reason for eviction. Typical notice periods are between 3 and 30 days.

Step 4: Landlord Files Eviction Action With Court

Different states have different requirements for how landlords must file eviction paperwork with the court, when they must file the eviction paperwork, and how tenants must be notified that the landlord has filed an eviction case.

Typically, once the eviction case has been filed with the court, an eviction hearing will be scheduled, although some states will not set a hearing until the tenant has filed a written response, or “answer” with the court.

In most states, the tenant must be served with a summons that tells them when to appear for the hearing, or that requires them to file a written answer with the court by a certain deadline if they want to attend the eviction hearing.

This part of the process can take anywhere from 3-30 days or longer, depending on the state, the reason for the eviction, and whether or not tenants are required to file a written response.

Step 5: Court Decides if Tenant Must Move Out

The day of the eviction hearing has finally arrived—meaning a final decision about the eviction will be made, right? Not necessarily! Some states only hold one eviction hearing, while others schedule two hearings (or more).

Types of Hearings

In states that schedule two hearings, often the initial hearing is designed to give the landlord and tenant the chance to work out an agreement to allow the tenant to remain in the rental unit, such as creating a rent re-payment schedule if the eviction is due to nonpayment of rent.

If an agreement can’t be reached between the landlord and tenant, then an eviction hearing will be held at another time, which is when a judicial officer will determine whether the tenant will be required to move out.

In other states that set two hearings, the initial hearing is for a judicial officer to determine if additional evidence is required to make a final ruling, or if a decision can be made immediately on the eviction.

If more evidence is necessary, or if witnesses will need to be called, a second hearing will be held at a later date.

Some states hold an eviction hearing first and then a separate hearing later to determine how much, if anything, is owed to the winning party.

Other states only have one hearing during which all issues, including any dollar amounts owed, will be addressed.

Ruling on the Eviction

At the eviction hearing, whether it’s the first hearing, the second hearing, or a jury trial, one of two things can happen:

• The court rules in favor of the tenant
• The court rules in favor of the landlord

If the judicial officer rules in favor of the tenant, then the eviction is stopped, and the tenant gets to remain in the rental unit. In some states, tenants are entitled to money damages if they win the eviction lawsuit.

If the judicial officer rules in favor of the landlord, either through a default judgment or at the eviction hearing, then the tenant must move out by a certain deadline.

This deadline may be set by the judicial officer at the hearing, or it could be determined by state law. Some states allow tenants different amounts of time to move out depending on the reason for the eviction.

Order for Possession

Once the court rules in the landlord’s favor, an order to remove the tenant will be issued. This may be called an order (or writ) for eviction, possession, restitution, or removal, depending on the state.

The writ or order may be issued at the hearing, or in some states, it may not be issued until a few days after the hearing in order to give tenants time to file an appeal.

A few states allow the landlord to remove the tenant once they’ve gotten the official eviction order, while in others, the order has to first go to a local law enforcement agency, and law enforcement officials must act on the order within a specific time period that varies by state.

The court hearing and ruling can take a few days to several months, depending on whether there are one or two trials, whether a jury trial is held, whether continuances have been granted, and whether or not the tenant appeals the ruling.

Step 6: Tenant is Removed (Evicted) From Rental Unit

Once an order or writ for possession/eviction/restitution/removal is issued, the clock starts ticking for the tenant to move out.

Some states require tenants to move out immediately after the order or writ is issued, while others give tenants a few days to several months, depending on whether tenants can prove moving out immediately would create a “hardship.” This is called a stay of execution.

In addition, in some states, the writ cannot be issued until after the deadline to file an appeal has passed, which gives tenants more time to move out of the rental unit even if they’re not filing an appeal.

For example, in Connecticut, the writ cannot be issued until 5 days after the ruling in favor of the landlord. Once the writ is issued, the tenant has an additional 24 hours to move out, giving the tenant a total of 6 days to move out after the order was entered in favor of the landlord.

If the tenant fails to move out within their state’s deadline, then in nearly every state, law enforcement officials will return to the rental unit and forcibly remove (or evict) the tenant from the rental unit.

See the chart below for the amount of time given to tenants to move out prior to being forcibly removed. (Note: The chart does not include any stays that may be granted by the court.)

The amount of time tenants are given to move out in some states depends on the reason for the eviction, and in many states, tenants being evicted due to illegal activity have less time to move out than they would for other eviction types.

In Summary

While the specific details of the eviction process vary from state to state, each state typically follows the same general pattern when it comes to evictions.

First, the lease expires or the tenant violates a lease provision. Then, the landlord gives the tenant notice of the violation or their intention to end the tenancy (in states that require notice prior to eviction).

Next, the tenant is typically given a certain amount of time to comply with the notice or move out of the rental unit (in states that require notice prior to eviction).

Then, the landlord files the eviction case with the court, the court decides whether or not the tenant must move out, and if so, the tenant will be given a certain amount of time to move out (which could be immediately).

Finally, if the tenant fails to move out within the court-ordered deadline, or within the deadline laid out by state law, then states typically require law enforcement officials to forcibly remove the tenant from the rental unit.