Maine fee transparency law: what landlords must disclose

Maine's fee transparency requirement has been in effect since January 1, 2025, ahead of several of the states now adopting similar rules — which means it is worth double-checking compliance now rather than treating this as a future deadline.

What the law requires

Landlords must disclose the full cost of renting an apartment or home, in plain and understandable language, before a lease is signed and before collecting a prospective renter's personal information. That disclosure must include recurring fees on top of base rent, not just the base rent figure itself.

What "plain language" means in practice

The plain-language requirement is worth taking literally: a fee schedule written in dense legal terminology that technically discloses the number but obscures the actual cost is the kind of disclosure this law is aimed at preventing, even if a fee amount is technically present somewhere in the document.

What to check

Confirm every current listing reflects full mandatory costs, that the leasing flow shows that total before requesting applicant information, and that any auto-renewal clause is written in language a renter would actually understand on a first read. Public sources do not detail specific penalty amounts for noncompliance, so a direct check against current Maine statute or counsel is the right move if your process still discloses fees late in the application.

Keeping fee terms tied to the lease record from the start, through lease and document tracking, removes the need to re-audit listings every time pricing changes — the number in the listing and the number in the signed lease stay the same figure by construction.

For how this compares with other states and the federal rules on short-stay pricing, see fee transparency laws by state.