Maine Rental Application Form

Q: How much can a Maine landlord charge a rental applicant?

Only the actual cost of one screening item, and nothing at all for the application itself. Title 14, Section 6030-H(2) of the Maine Revised Statutes prohibits requiring an applicant to pay a fee to submit an application to enter into an agreement for rental of a dwelling unit, and prohibits requiring an applicant to pay a fee for the landlord to review or approve such an application. Subsection 3 then permits, subject to its own requirements, the actual cost of only one of the following: a background check, a credit check, or a screening process other than those two. There is no dollar figure anywhere in the section, because the landlord's own invoice for that single item is the ceiling. The section was enacted in 2023 and has never been amended.

Q: Can a Maine landlord charge a fee just to review an application?

No. That specific charge is named and barred. Section 6030-H(2) provides that, except as provided in the section, a landlord may not require an applicant to pay a fee to submit an application, nor require an applicant to pay a fee for the landlord to review or approve an application to enter into an agreement for rental of a dwelling unit. Submission and review are separate prohibitions in the same sentence, so neither an upfront paperwork charge nor a later decision charge survives. The only thing subsection 3 lets the landlord recover is the actual cost of one screening item, and even that is unavailable until the applicant has been told about the landlord's duty to hand over a complete copy of the result.

Q: Must a Maine landlord give the applicant a copy of the background or credit check?

Yes, and it has to be the complete copy. Section 6030-H(3) provides that a landlord shall provide an applicant with a complete copy of the information obtained pursuant to a background check, credit check or other screening process. The duty runs from the landlord directly to the applicant, so it is not answered by telling the applicant to contact the screening company. It is also not conditional on a request. The same subsection ties the duty to the money: a landlord may not charge any fee under it unless the landlord has notified the applicant that the landlord is required by law to provide that complete copy. In Maine the hand-over is what the fee buys.

Q: How often can a Maine landlord charge the same applicant a screening fee?

Once in any twelve month period. Section 6030-H(3) states that a landlord may not charge an applicant more than one fee for a background check, credit check or other screening process in any twelve month period. The limit follows the applicant and the landlord, so somebody who applies for one unit in March and another unit from the same landlord in September pays once, and a landlord who runs a fresh check for the second application absorbs that cost. Read together with the one-of-three limit in the same subsection, the total a Maine applicant can lawfully be billed across a year is the actual cost of a single screening item.

Q: Does a Maine landlord have to refund a screening fee if someone else gets the unit?

Maine imposes no such duty, and it is worth being plain about that rather than assuming the rule other states have. Section 6030-H contains no refund obligation, no duty to itemize what the actual cost turned out to be, and no duty to return the money because the unit was let to a different applicant. Maine prevented the problem at the front end instead: the only permitted charge is the actual cost of one screening item, nothing may be charged for the application or its review, and no second charge may be made inside twelve months. The protection an applicant does get when turned down is the complete copy of the screening information under subsection 3.

Q: Can a Maine applicant make a landlord reuse a report they already bought?

No. Maine has no reusable or portable tenant screening report statute. The absence is a decision rather than an oversight: in the same 2023 session that enacted the fee statute, a separate bill to streamline rental application screenings by allowing potential tenants to use screening services was reported out of committee and given the disposition Ought Not to Pass Pursuant To Joint Rule 310 on April 12, 2023. So Maine capped what may be charged and, weeks earlier, declined to make reports portable. An applicant carrying a recent report may offer it, but the landlord may still run its own check and recover the actual cost of that one item, once in twelve months.

Q: Can a Maine rental application ask about a protection order or a housing voucher?

No to the first, and a voucher may not be the reason for a refusal. Title 5, Section 4581-A(1)(A) makes it unlawful housing discrimination to make or cause to be made any written or oral inquiry concerning race or color, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, familial status, or any previous actions seeking and receiving an order of protection, of any prospective purchaser, occupant or tenant. Because the statute reaches the inquiry itself, a Maine application form may not contain the question. Section 4581-A(4) separately makes it unlawful to refuse to rent to, or impose different terms of tenancy on, an individual who is a recipient of federal, state or local public assistance, including medical assistance and housing subsidies, primarily because of that status.

Q: Does a Maine landlord have to give a written reason for turning down an application?

No Maine statute requires one. The state built its transparency at the front of the process rather than the back: notice of the complete-copy duty before any fee, the complete copy itself under Section 6030-H(3), and the signed written cost disclosure to a potential tenant under Section 6030-J(2). What Maine does regulate after the fact is the handling of the information the application collected. Title 14, Section 6025-B, added in 2025, bars a landlord, the landlord's agent or anyone acting under the landlord's direction from disclosing the personal information of a prospective tenant or prospective occupant without express consent in the circumstances it describes, and allows the person whose information was disclosed to recover actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater, plus injunctive relief.

Title 14, Section 6030-H of the Maine Revised Statutes prohibits any fee to submit a rental application or to have a landlord review or approve one. The single exception is the actual cost of one of a background check, a credit check or another screening process, no more than once per applicant in any twelve month period, and nothing may be charged until the landlord has told the applicant it must hand over a complete copy of what the screening produced.

Find out where you stand in Maine

Which side of the rental application are you on?

DocDraft provides document preparation, not legal advice.

Introduction

Nothing can be charged to a Maine rental applicant until the landlord has first said, out loud and in advance, that the law will make it hand over a complete copy of whatever the screening turns up. That sequence is written into Title 14, Section 6030-H of the Maine Revised Statutes, enacted in 2023 as Public Law 2023, chapter 346 and unamended since. Subsection 3 provides that a landlord may not charge an applicant any fee under that subsection unless the landlord has notified the applicant that the landlord is required by law to provide the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained pursuant to the background check, credit check or other screening process. Skip the notice and the right to collect does not arise. The structure around that condition matters just as much, because it is easy to flatten into a fee cap and it is not one. Subsection 2 is a flat prohibition: except as provided in the section, a landlord may not require an applicant to pay a fee to submit an application to enter into an agreement for rental of a dwelling unit, nor require an applicant to pay a fee for the landlord to review or approve such an application. There is no permitted charge for the paperwork, the review or the decision. Subsection 3 then carves out one narrow exception, and the counting in it is the payload. A landlord may require an applicant to pay the actual cost of only one of the following: a background check, a credit check, or a screening process other than those two. One of them, not all three, and at actual cost rather than a round number the landlord picks. The same subsection adds that a landlord may not charge an applicant more than one fee for a background check, credit check or other screening process in any twelve month period, so a second application to the same landlord inside a year carries no second charge. Maine deliberately stopped there. There is no duty to refund an unused portion, no duty to itemize the actual cost, no duty to return the money because the unit went to somebody else, and no duty to give a written reason for a denial. What Maine built instead is a hand-over duty, and a landlord that wants the one permitted fee has to announce that duty before taking the money. One scope warning for readers outside conventional apartments: the identical rule for a mobile home or a mobile home park lot lives in a separate statute, Title 10, Section 9093-A.

Key Things to Know

1
Count to one, twice. Section 6030-H(3) permits the actual cost of only one of three things, listed in the statute as a background check, a credit check, or a screening process other than those two, and then separately bars more than one such fee per applicant in any twelve month period. Both halves are limits a charge can fail independently. A landlord billing separately for a credit pull and a background check has charged for two of the three; a landlord billing a returning applicant eight months later has charged twice inside the twelve month window. Enacted in 2023 and in force unchanged as of 2026.
2
The notice comes before the money, and it is a precondition rather than a courtesy. Section 6030-H(3) provides that a landlord may not charge an applicant any fee under that subsection unless the landlord has notified the applicant that the landlord is required by law to provide the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained. The notice is about the landlord's own obligation, not about the applicant's rights in the abstract, and its timing is what gives the fee its legal footing. An applicant handed a payment request with no such notice has been asked for a charge the subsection does not authorize.
3
A complete copy means the whole file, not a summary. Section 6030-H(3) requires that a landlord shall provide an applicant with a complete copy of the information obtained pursuant to a background check, credit check or other screening process. The duty sits on the landlord rather than on the screening company, it is not conditional on the applicant asking, and it is not satisfied by a decision letter or a score. This is what the one permitted fee buys, and it is the reason Maine needs no itemization rule: the applicant receives the product rather than an accounting of it.
4
Maine priced the paperwork at zero. Section 6030-H(2) bars a fee to submit an application and bars a fee for the landlord to review or approve one, and those are separate prohibitions covering separate moments. Administrative charges, processing charges and holding charges attached to the application have no authorisation in the section, and the exception in subsection 3 reaches only the actual cost of a screening item. Title 14, Section 6022-A(1) then closes the next gap by limiting the initial money at the start of a tenancy to the first full month of rent, a security deposit within the statutory limit, and any mandatory recurring fee properly disclosed in advance.
5
Before the lease is signed, every cost has to be written down and signed for. Section 6030-J(2) requires a landlord to provide a potential tenant or lessee written disclosure of the costs they will be responsible for paying, containing at a minimum the total cost of rent, any mandatory recurring fee, any optional recurring fee, any utility service costs, and any other cost the tenant will be responsible for paying. Subsection 3 requires that the disclosure be plain and readily understandable by the general public, signed by both parties, with a copy provided to each. This reaches a potential tenant, so it lands at the application stage rather than at signing.
6
The application form itself is restricted in Maine, and the restriction is on asking rather than on deciding. Title 5, Section 4581-A(1)(A) makes it unlawful housing discrimination to make or cause to be made any written or oral inquiry concerning the race or color, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, familial status, or any previous actions seeking and receiving an order of protection, of any prospective purchaser, occupant or tenant. The protection-order ground was added by a 2025 amendment to that paragraph. Section 4581-A(4) separately protects a recipient of federal, state or local public assistance, including medical assistance and housing subsidies.
7
Maine has no portable screening report rule, and the reason is a dated vote rather than silence. In the same 2023 session that produced the fee statute, a bill to let prospective tenants use their own screening services was reported out and received the disposition Ought Not to Pass Pursuant To Joint Rule 310 on April 12, 2023. So a Maine applicant who already paid for a recent report cannot require a landlord to take it, and the landlord may still charge the one permitted actual-cost fee for its own check, subject to the twelve month limit.

Key decisions before you file

Before you file a Rental Application Form in Maine, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Rental Application Form guide walks through them.

Open the Rental Application Form guide

Customize your Rental Application Form Template with DocDraft

MAINE RENTAL APPLICATION (SKELETON)

Order follows Title 14, Section 6030-H of the Maine Revised Statutes. The landlord completes A and B before handing the form out; the applicant completes C through G. For a mobile home or a mobile home park lot, the equivalent rule is Title 10, Section 9093-A.

A. REQUIRED NOTICE, GIVEN BEFORE ANY MONEY IS COLLECTED The landlord is required by law to provide the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained pursuant to any background check, credit check or other screening process paid for with the charge in Part B. No charge may be made under Section 6030-H(3) unless this notice has been given first. Notice given on: ________ Applicant acknowledges receipt: ____

B. THE ONE PERMITTED CHARGE No fee is charged to submit this application, and no fee is charged for the landlord to review or approve it. Actual cost of ONE of the following, and only one: [ ] background check [ ] credit check [ ] other screening process, described: ____________ Amount, equal to the actual cost: $[AMOUNT]. Provider: ____________ No further background check, credit check or other screening fee will be charged to this applicant within twelve months of this date. Applicant initials: ____

C. APPLICANT Full legal name. Telephone. Email. Current mailing address.

D. ADDRESS HISTORY Current address, dates of occupancy, monthly rent, landlord or manager name and telephone. Two prior addresses with the same details.

E. INCOME AND REFERENCES Employer, position, length of employment, gross monthly income. Other lawful income, which may include federal, state or local public assistance, medical assistance or a housing subsidy. Receipt of any of those is not a ground for refusing this application or for different terms of tenancy.

F. OCCUPANTS, VEHICLES AND PETS Every person who will occupy the unit. Vehicles. Pets, and whether any animal is required as a disability accommodation, which is handled separately from this application.

G. CONSENT I authorize the landlord to obtain the single screening item checked in Part B and to verify the statements above. I understand I will receive a complete copy of the information obtained.

Signature: ____________________ Date: ________

COST DISCLOSURE, TO BE SIGNED BEFORE ANY LEASE Section 6030-J(2) requires written disclosure to a potential tenant of the total cost of rent, any mandatory recurring fee, any optional recurring fee, any utility service costs, and any other cost the tenant will be responsible for paying. The disclosure must be plain and readily understandable, signed by both parties, with a copy to each. Section 6022-A(1) limits the initial money at the start of the tenancy to the first full month of rent, a security deposit within the statutory limit, and any mandatory recurring fee disclosed under Section 6030-J. Landlord signature: ____________ Applicant signature: ____________

FORM NOTE. This application makes no written or oral inquiry concerning race or color, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, familial status, or any previous actions seeking and receiving an order of protection. Title 5, Section 4581-A(1)(A) makes the inquiry itself unlawful.

National form and other states: Rental Application Form. The tenancy itself begins with a Residential Lease Agreement.

Maine Requirements for Rental Application Form

No Fee to Submit the Application, and No Fee to Review It
Section 6030-H(2) of Title 14 provides that, except as provided in the section, a landlord may not require an applicant to pay a fee to submit an application to enter into an agreement for rental of a dwelling unit, nor require an applicant to pay a fee for the landlord to review or approve such an application. Two moments, two prohibitions, in one sentence. Enacted in 2023 as Public Law 2023, chapter 346 and in force unamended as of 2026. A processing charge, an administration charge or a decision charge attached to the application has no authorisation in Maine.
The Actual Cost of One of Three Things, and Only One
Section 6030-H(3) is the single exception to the prohibition. Subject to its own requirements, a landlord may require an applicant to pay the actual cost of only one of the following: a background check; a credit check; or a screening process other than those two. The word is actual, so the landlord's own invoice is the ceiling and there is no statutory figure to index or republish. Billing separately for a credit pull and a background check charges for two of the three and exceeds what the subsection permits.
One Screening Fee Per Applicant Per Twelve Months
Also in Section 6030-H(3): a landlord may not charge an applicant more than one fee for a background check, credit check or other screening process in any 12-month period. The limit attaches to the applicant, so a second application to the same landlord inside the year carries no second charge even where the landlord runs a fresh check. Read with the one-of-three limit in the same subsection, the whole of what a Maine applicant may lawfully be billed across twelve months is the actual cost of a single screening item.
Notice of the Complete-Copy Duty, Before Any Money Changes Hands
Section 6030-H(3) provides that a landlord may not charge an applicant any fee under that subsection unless the landlord has notified the applicant that the landlord is required by law to provide the applicant a complete copy of the information obtained pursuant to the background check, credit check or other screening process. This is a precondition on the right to collect, not a formality that can be cured afterwards. The notice has to describe the landlord's own obligation, and it has to come first.
A Complete Copy of the Screening Information
Section 6030-H(3) requires that a landlord shall provide an applicant with a complete copy of the information obtained pursuant to a background check, credit check or other screening process. The duty runs from the landlord to the applicant directly, is not satisfied by referring the applicant to the screening company, and is not conditioned on a request. Because the applicant receives the product itself, Maine needs no itemization rule and imposes none: there is no duty to break down the actual cost and no duty to refund an unused portion.
The Signed Total-Price Disclosure, and the Cap on the Initial Money
Section 6030-J(2) of Title 14 requires a landlord, prior to entering a lease or tenancy at will agreement, to provide a potential tenant or lessee written disclosure of the costs they will be responsible for paying, containing at a minimum the total cost of rent, any mandatory recurring fee, any optional recurring fee, any utility service costs, and any other cost the tenant will be responsible for paying. It must be plain and readily understandable by the general public, signed by both parties, with a copy provided to each. Section 6022-A(1) then limits the initial money to the first full month of rent, a security deposit within the statutory limit, and any mandatory recurring fee properly disclosed under Section 6030-J.
The Inquiries a Maine Application May Not Make
Title 5, Section 4581-A(1)(A) makes it unlawful housing discrimination to make or cause to be made any written or oral inquiry concerning the race or color, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, familial status, or any previous actions seeking and receiving an order of protection, of any prospective purchaser, occupant or tenant. Because the statute reaches the inquiry and not only the decision, the question may not appear on the form. The protection-order ground was added by a 2025 amendment to that paragraph. Section 4581-A(4) separately makes it unlawful to refuse to rent to, or impose different terms of tenancy on, a recipient of federal, state or local public assistance, including medical assistance and housing subsidies, primarily because of that status. Maine sets no statewide restriction on when a rental applicant's criminal record may be considered.
The Personal Information the Application Collects, and $1,000 Damages
Title 14, Section 6025-B, added in 2025, reaches a prospective tenant and a prospective occupant as well as a sitting one. It bars a landlord, a landlord's agent and any other person acting under the landlord's direction from disclosing to any person the personal information of a known or prospective tenant or occupant without express consent, in the circumstances the section describes. Personal information is defined broadly and includes name and contact details, racial or ethnic origin, religious belief, health condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, Social Security number, driver's license number, billing or financial or payment-method information, and crime-victim status. The person whose information was disclosed may recover actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater, and obtain injunctive relief.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can a Maine landlord charge a rental applicant?

Can a Maine landlord charge a fee just to review an application?

Must a Maine landlord give the applicant a copy of the background or credit check?

How often can a Maine landlord charge the same applicant a screening fee?

Does a Maine landlord have to refund a screening fee if someone else gets the unit?

Can a Maine applicant make a landlord reuse a report they already bought?

Can a Maine rental application ask about a protection order or a housing voucher?

Does a Maine landlord have to give a written reason for turning down an application?

Find out where you stand in Maine

Introduction

Key Things to Know

Key decisions before you file

Customize your Rental Application Form Template with DocDraft

Maine Requirements for Rental Application Form

No Fee to Submit the Application, and No Fee to Review It

The Actual Cost of One of Three Things, and Only One

One Screening Fee Per Applicant Per Twelve Months

Notice of the Complete-Copy Duty, Before Any Money Changes Hands

A Complete Copy of the Screening Information

The Signed Total-Price Disclosure, and the Cap on the Initial Money

The Inquiries a Maine Application May Not Make

The Personal Information the Application Collects, and $1,000 Damages

Frequently Asked Questions