Facing Eviction in Maine: What Can I Do?
This page covers eviction notices and court cases in Maine. It explains the notice rules, how to stop a case by paying, what happens in court, and your defenses. Maine calls an eviction case "forcible entry and detainer."
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To end an at-will rental, your landlord must give you at least 30 days' notice in writing. Some cases follow other rules. Say you paid rent through the day a 30-day notice would end. Then the notice must end on or after that day.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Among other reasons, your landlord can end a rental with 7 days' written notice if the landlord can prove one of the listed reasons. Examples: you are 7 days or more behind on rent. Or you caused substantial damage that you did not repair before the notice. Or the person living there is not an authorized occupant (a person allowed to live there).
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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A 7-day notice must say the specific ground your landlord claims. If the ground is rent 7 days or more late, the notice must also give the amount. The amount is the rent that is that late as of the date of the notice.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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You may be 7 days or more behind on rent. Pay the full rent due before the 7-day notice ends. Then the notice no longer counts.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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In an at-will rental, you can still pay after the 7-day notice ends. Pay all the rent you owe, all rent due on the day you pay, and the filing and service fees your landlord actually spent. Do it before the writ of possession (the order to remove you) is issued. Then your rental is reinstated (put back). No removal order can issue.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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If your landlord serves you with eviction court papers, the landlord must attach a one-page to 2-page form notice from the judicial branch. It describes the court steps. It says that missing a scheduled hearing may result in judgment (the court's final decision in your case) for the landlord. That would require you to leave. It also lists programs that give rental assistance (money to help pay rent), legal help and housing counseling.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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You may fail to show sufficient cause (a good enough reason to stay). Then the court must enter judgment (its final decision) against you for possession (the right to the home).
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Seven calendar days after the judgment (the court's final decision) is entered, the court issues the writ of possession (the order to remove you). A sheriff or a constable may serve it. The court cannot issue it if the ground was unpaid rent and you paid the amount needed to reinstate (put back) the rental.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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A constable or sheriff may serve you with a writ of possession (the removal order). You then have 48 hours to remove yourself and your things. After that, you are deemed a trespasser (a person with no right to be there). The law considers your goods and property abandoned.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Your landlord may be ending your rental for unpaid rent. You can raise the landlord's breach of the implied warranty of habitability (the promise that the home is fit to live in) as a defense. Three things must be true. Your landlord or the landlord's agent had notice of the problem. Given the circumstances, your landlord failed, in an unreasonable way, to take prompt, effective steps to repair it. You or someone under your control did not cause it.
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In an eviction case, retaliation (punishment) is presumed (the court treats it as true unless your landlord proves it is not). This is so if, within 6 months before the case began, you did certain things. One is asking in writing, in good faith, for repairs required by a code, section 6021 (fit to live in) or your rental agreement. The presumption (the court's starting assumption) does not apply to a case for breaking the lease or a 7-day-notice reason. An example is 7 days or more behind on rent. It does apply if you asserted your section 6026 right to repair and deduct (do a minor repair yourself and take its cost off rent).
Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6021 Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6026(2) Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6001(3) Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Sometimes the retaliation presumption (the court's starting assumption that the case is punishment, unless your landlord proves otherwise) does not apply. It does not apply if the case is for breaking a lease. Nor does it apply to a reason that allows a 7-day notice, such as 7 days or more of unpaid rent. It does apply if you used Maine's repair-and-deduct rule (fixing a dangerous condition yourself and taking the cost out of your rent). That rule does not cover a building of 5 or fewer units where your landlord lives in one.
Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6026(2) Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6001(3) Maine Revised Statutes 14 M.R.S. § 6002(1)✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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You can raise as a defense that your landlord did not give a reasonable accommodation. That is a change to a rule or service that a person with a disability needs to use the home equally. The court must deny the eviction if three things are true. The landlord had a duty to offer one. The landlord failed to. There is a causal link (a connection) between the request and the conduct in the case.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Either side may appeal a judgment (the court's final decision in your case) to the Superior Court. You may appeal on questions of law. You may also ask for a new trial in the Superior Court on any issue you have a right to have a jury decide. The time to file ends when the writ of possession (the removal order) is issued, or 30 days after the judgment is entered. The earlier one counts.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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