Key Takeaways

Start with the right written notice based on the situation, like a 7-day notice for nonpayment or lease violations and a 30-day notice to end a month-to-month tenancy.
Serve the notice properly, which can include posting it at the unit and mailing it by first-class mail to the tenant’s known address.
If the tenant does not comply after the notice period, file a Forcible Entry and Detainer case in district court and attend the required hearing before any removal can happen.
Plan for the timeline, since Maine evictions often take about one to two months once notice, court scheduling, and the writ process are factored in.

Have you ever wondered how long it really takes to legally evict a tenant in Maine? Or what steps to follow to make sure your eviction is lawful and enforceable? If you do not follow the letter of the law, your eviction could be delayed or even thrown out.

That’s why Spectrum Property Management put together this article. In the paragraphs that follow, we walk you through the full eviction process in Maine from the moment you give notice to a tenant, through the court hearing, to final repossession.

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What’s the Eviction Process in Maine?

Notice for Lease Termination with Legal Cause

As a landlord in Maine, you can evict a renter for legitimate reasons. These lawful reasons include:

Tenant fails to pay rent on time.
Tenant violates lease terms, such as unauthorized occupants, pets, or other rule breaches.
Tenant causes substantial damage or makes the rental unsafe or unfit to live in.
Tenant engages in illegal activity on the premises.
Tenant becomes a nuisance by disturbing others or violating health and safety rules.

Types of Eviction Notices in Maine

Depending on the issue, you use one of these notices:

7 Day Notice to Quit or Notice to Pay or Vacate: Used for nonpayment, lease violations, damage, nuisance, health and safety violations, or illegal activity.
30 Day Notice to Vacate or Terminate Tenancy: Used to end a month-to-month tenancy without cause.

Serving a Tenant with an Eviction Notice in Maine

If the eviction is for a cause, such as nonpayment or a lease agreement violation, you begin by giving the proper written notice. For example, a 7 Day Notice to Quit for unpaid rent or other breach.

You may post the notice at the rental unit and mail it to the tenant’s known address by first-class mail.

If you are ending a month-to-month tenancy without cause, you must give a 30-day written notice. If the tenant remains past the notice period and fails to fix the issue or move out, you may proceed to file for eviction in court.

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Tenant Eviction Defenses in Maine

Even if you follow the process correctly, tenants may raise defenses in court to delay or block the eviction. Common defenses include:

Claiming improper notice, such as incorrect service or missing required wording.
Claiming the eviction is discriminatory or retaliatory, especially if the tenant recently reported problems or exercised legal rights.
Arguing the rental unit was uninhabitable or unsafe, which can affect the validity of some eviction claims.

Because of these defenses, most evictions require a court ruling before you can remove a tenant.

Court Proceedings and Final Eviction

If the notice period expires and the tenant does not comply, you must file a Forcible Entry and Detainer complaint in district court. The court will schedule a hearing, and after the tenant is served by a sheriff, the hearing generally takes place at least 14 days later.

If the court rules in your favor, you may request a Writ of Possession. This writ typically becomes available about 7 days after the court judgment. Once the Writ of Possession is issued, a sheriff is authorized to remove the tenant.

In many cases, the tenant must leave within 48 hours of receiving the writ. Only after the writ is served do you regain legal possession of the property. You cannot legally force a tenant out, change locks, or remove belongings before this point.

Why Following the Process Matters

Skipping steps or handling any part of the eviction incorrectly, such as an incomplete notice, improper service, or bypassing the court process, can invalidate the eviction. That often means you must start over from the beginning.

Given court schedules and the need for proper notice, the entire eviction process in Maine often takes one to two months. It can take longer if the tenant contests the case or files an appeal.

GET HELP NAVIGATING THE MAINE EVICTION PROCESS CORRECTLY

CONTACT US TODAY

Bottom Line

Evicting a tenant in Maine follows a structured legal process. You begin by serving the correct written notice based on the reason for eviction. If the tenant does not fix the problem or move out, you file a formal eviction complaint, attend the hearing, and then request a Writ of Possession. Only after the writ is served are you legally allowed to retake the unit.

If you want to avoid mistakes, delays, or legal issues with Maine landlord-tenant law, Spectrum Property Management can guide you through the entire process. From preparing notices to handling court filings, we make eviction procedures clear and compliant. Contact us today to protect your rental property and move forward with confidence.

Disclaimer: Please note that the information provided in this blog is intended for general guidance and should not be considered as a replacement for professional legal advice. It is important to be aware that laws pertaining to property management may change, rendering this information outdated by the time you read it.

Areas We Serve

Maine
Waterville
Lewiston
Augusta
Auburn
Gardiner
Hollowell
Lisbon
Randolph
Richmond
Winslow
Oakland
Mercer
Farmington
Wilton
Skowhegan
Norridgewock
Fairfield
Clinton
Newport
Pittsfield
Sidney
Manchester
Winthrop
Greene
Sabattus
Livermore Falls
Rumford
Jay
Brunswick
Topsham
Kennebec County
Mandarin
Hollowell

Dan Michaud

I cannot recommend Spectrum Property Management highly enough. Dealing with their team is always a pleasant and professional experience.
The level of communication is truly outstanding—they keep me informed just enough that I always know what's happening, but they never overwhelm me with unnecessary details.
Since handing over my property to Spectrum, I literally do not have to worry about a single thing. They handle everything from tenant screening and maintenance coordination to rent collection efficiently and professionally. If you are looking for a completely hands-off and reliable management solution, I urge you to choose Spectrum. Highly recommended!

...

Rick Cook

Been using Spectrum for several years and their attention to our property is superb! I would recommend this management service to anyone that needs assistance dealing with multi unit property needs.

Clyde Arnold

Spectrum has provided exceptional service in advertising my rental property and thoroughly screening potential candidates, which has consistently resulted in reliable renters. Their support doesn’t stop once a tenant moves in — when emergencies arise, they have the resources and responsiveness to resolve issues promptly for both the renter and the property owner. I’ve had a great relationship with Spectrum for over five years, and their professionalism and dedication continue to impress me.

Stuart Axelrod

Responsive, dependable and honest

Randy Moseley

Reid and his team are very efficient and professional. They got us up to 100% occupancy within the first 3 months of their management. This will be life changing and profound for my family going forward!

I used Spectrum for 10 years and was very pleased with their management services both under Jayne’s supervision and now under Reid’s. Jayne and Reid handle tenant relationships with professionalism and tact. Reid has also introduced Buildium software which makes keeping up to date with rents and maintenance costs easy. His expertise in implementing the software and creating reports has brought greater peace-of-mind to the ownership experience. Reid’s commitment to service validated my decision to recommend Spectrum Management to other property investors without hesitation or reservation.

Captain Frank (Captain Frank)

Spectrum Property Management has always been attentive to my needs as an absentee landlord. Good communication, rapid responses and always a pleasure to deal with.
Thank you Reid, Jayne and staff!

julia howard

Reid has had our account for several months now. His energy and professionalism has impressed me and any issues that me or the tenants have had, he has addressed them quickly and fairly. Thank you Reid and everyone at Spectrum!

Randolph Jones

Spectrum has been everything we wanted in property management. Always available and always on top of things, with lots of communication. Not only are we happy with them, but our tenants are too. I couldn't recommend them more highly.

David Rancourt

The entire team at Spectrum Property Mgmnt, Reid, Danielle and Colleen, were all extremely helpful in guiding us thru this first time experience in finding the ideal tenant. Great communications and follow thru. Competitive rates and very thorough. They advertised, located, screened and set up all the initial paperwork for our new tenant. Professional and polite. Located the ideal tenant in less then 2 weeks! Thank you to the entire crew! Great job. Dave R.

L L

"Great to work with—highly recommended for professional property management services."

Robert Travis

A professional property manager that handles all aspects of managing a rental property in todays market conditions.

Chris “Mr. Beach” Paszyc

Reid and the crew at SPR have been extremely helpful in managing a couple properties we own in Central Maine. I have both commercial and residential tenants. They have proven to be very responsive to both my tenants and my wife and I. I have also referred them to clients who have commercial real estate. To date, those clients have been very pleased as well. They work hard and have been reasonable and thoughtful. I like their software platform, which updates me when a work order goes in and when the work has been completed. Please keep up the good work!

Jason Elliott

Spectrum has gone above and beyond in helping me to resolve some issues with my rental property. Their attention to detail and responsiveness are what I find the most impressive, these qualities are important for me. I live out of state, so they are my eyes and ears in Maine.

Hans Saucier

If your in need of someone helping you manage your properties . I would highly recommend Reid and his staff to help you out. I have been using them for around 8 years .

Joel Bennett

Reid and his professional team at Spectrum Property Management did a fantastic job placing a new tenant in my rental unit. I would highly recommend their services.

Thanks again!

Kevyn Warren

Awesome and positive experience

Heidi McCauley

Best property management in Waterville & surrounding areas for rentals, buying a home or having them take care of renting out & managing for u.

Best property management company we’ve ever rented from, hands down. Super responsive and courteous staff. Maintenance issues were handled at lightning speed by quality contractors. Back in 2019, the week before Maine’s lockdown we had an emergency plumbing issue and Cathy managed to get someone out immediately. Thanks for taking us on as tenants, it was a wonderful 3 years!

greg shrader

Very pleased with Spectrum. We had an appointment to view a property,(in fact we DID view a property). They called the next day, having listened to our needs and suggested we view a second property before deciding. We did, and then signed a contract for the second place. We would never had known about it but they listened, learned our situation, and offered what turned out to be a great fit. Its been over a year now and every call has been answered, every problem addressed, and every need met. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Jill Duperry

Through Spectrum Property Mgmt I found the most beautiful home and I can honestly say I have never been happier! The services they provide are absolutely tailored with the client in mind. Thank you Spectrum!

Susan

I have to say, I was most pleased with the services from spectram. Jayne and Kathie are excellent. It was the first time I used a property manager and I was extremely impressed. I highly recommend them to everyone. You would be in excellent hands!!!! Very trustworthy!!!!

Karen Kelly

Your Review
I have worked with Spectrum for probably about 5 years now. They really have been lifesavers for us. Jayne and her crew have never let us down, have always been available and responsive, and have gone above and beyond the call of duty over and over again. I might add that we have 7 units in an old building. This is not a new and easy place. I recommend them very very highly! My only hesitation is that they will become so wildly popular that things would change. But, because they run their business so well, even that wouldn't be a problem because they would find a way to give the same great service to everyone. The price is reasonable and when contractors are necessary, they find the best to meet our needs, including financially. No complaints!!!

C Nye

Received a phone call from a lady after inquiring about a rental property. Very poor communication I let her know exactly what I was looking for, we get off the phone and she starts sending me exactly what I wasn't looking for. I'm actually from out of state, so wasting time with situations like this is not preferable at all. I recommend working on communication skills and listening to potential customers!

Jesse G

Dealing with spectrum has been one of the most frustrating things they have a Mickey mouse operation and trying to get them to fix anything is like pulling teeth. I would not recommend spectrum to anyone.

Hope Vitale

Absolutely horrible. They didn’t communicate, lied, and misled my family. They were a nightmare to work with.
More details:
My family submitted our application for a rental, and didn’t get informed until two weeks later they needed a few more documents. So we provide those documents and are told we’re all set and started waiting for an answer.
We then get told everything looked good, except that we have pets and pets are not allowed (though I swear the listing originally did not say this and they went back and changed it). We had already figured this might happen so we arranged with a family member to take the cats, and informed Joy V of this update and that we’d be fine to move forward without them. This is a Friday, she then tells me okay great! Everything is resubmitted for review and we will tell you an answer on Monday. So Monday comes, and I don’t hear from her so I give her multiple calls that were ignored. Tuesday she tells me it’s actually 1-3 business days. Then by Wednesday night I still don’t get an answer. I keep calling and texting with no reply, I even call the main office and finally get a hold of someone who tells me the same “we will get back to you by the end of the day” just to never be contacted.
I finally tell Joy to just revoke our application because we do not want to work with this company. She then tells me that we were denied once we said we had pets, even though we were strung on to believe that because of our willingness to move forward without our cats the application was still in review and potentially could be accepted.
Essentially, we were denied without being told and were lied to over them “reviewing” the updates. There’s many more outrageous details to the story but I will leave it at this; Spectrum Property Management misled us, lied to us, didn’t communicate with us, and put us in a situation where we thought we’d have a home and wound up homeless.
Please do yourself a favor and do not bother with this company.

Kristen

Be prepared to pay an application fee, even though they claim it is free to apply. I was also told they offer lenience with credit, etc, but that was also untrue. If I had known what the requirements actually were, I would not have wasted my time and money. So if you have even slightly less than absolutely stellar finances, look elsewhere.

mindy gungor

Not a professional place to deal with at all. They ask for way too much personal information, they send repeated messages asking for the same information that's already in the application, and then waste 10 days waiting for an answer, plus $120 in application fees only to be denied based of their own mistake. Credit score requirements for college students should be slightly flexible when there are Guarantors involved, as well as financial aid on behalf of a student. Being denied because they have student loans while they're full time students is ridiculous. Are full-time college students with 4.0's and plenty of financial aid / scholarships / family support supposed to remain homeless?

I was hoping a Human Being would have reviewed the application to see that they were more than able to handle the rent, but they do not --so DO NOT waste your money applying unless you are MORE than capable on paper because their ability to synthesize information is lacking. They do not actually look at these very carefully, but they sure as heck spend a lot of time bombarding you with questions making you think it's all good to go then apply blanket statements which make no sense to a human being reading between the lines.

Maddie Boetsch

Were great and communicative up until time for showing and no showed after appointment was booked and confirmed.

Lewis Rodgers

Terrible Company, agreed upon a one year lease. After waiting 3-4 weeks to get approved through their unprofessional process I receive a call asking to have a 2 year lease instead of 1 because it is preferred. Once I didn’t agree to the 2 year they forced it upon me resulting in me losing interest. Terrible business not reliable or trusted.

Chedder TheBlazed

Absolutely terrible. The place I viewed looks like a Crack shack. Junk all over the front lawn and driveway. The rest of the lawn looks like it hasn't been mowed in years and the inside is a joke! Looks like you will catch a disease if you touch anything. No hot water in the "kitchen area" the kitchen area consists of a rusted out disgusting microwave on a dirty table.
Staff are very rude and two faced as well. Highly don't recommend.

Tom Walker

Very nice folks there. Apartments are hard to find right now, so after paying for my application I waited on a house that was particularly suited for me. I was told I was the first in line so I put other options aside. I stopped in frequently to check in on its "ready" status. I showed up at the end of the day yesterday to find it was rented to another customer. I understand that the owner can choose between applicants, but I'm disappointed that I wasn't notified by Spectrum. I also haven't heard anything since.

Cody Morrison

They come up with some bizarre reasons of why you may be having issues and their ‘solutions’ are not the answer. They seem lazy and hard to get in touch with.

Joe Larson

Bad company, they never get back to you when they say they will. They don’t care about anything. Trust me you won’t be in good hands with this company that’s for sure!

Gareth Dailey

Rude and discourteous email conversation in regards to a rental inquiry. They don't seem to have the understanding that gross income is not as relevant to the ability to afford rent as net income (who can pay rent with their FICA and medicare taxes? I certainly can't). They don't read the messages you send them and insist on a redundant questionnaire to waste your time, don't read when you specify the type of income you provide, and then become indignant that you didn't provide exactly what they ask for, probably running off a script. Very rude, will be avoiding properties managed by them in the future.

A Guide to the Eviction Process in Oakland, ME

Key Takeaways

NOT SURE WHETHER TO FILE OR DEFEND A SMALL CLAIMS CASE?

BOOK A CONSULTATION TODAY.

What’s the Eviction Process in Maine?

Notice for Lease Termination with Legal Cause

Types of Eviction Notices in Maine

Serving a Tenant with an Eviction Notice in Maine

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP THE RIGHT WAY?

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR SERVICES

Tenant Eviction Defenses in Maine

Court Proceedings and Final Eviction

Why Following the Process Matters

GET HELP NAVIGATING THE MAINE EVICTION PROCESS CORRECTLY

CONTACT US TODAY

Bottom Line

Free Rental Analysis

Praise From Our Clients

Areas We Serve

Maine's Premier Property
Management Company

Serving renters and owners within Central Maine including Androscoggin and Kennebec county.

Maine's Premier Property
Management Company

Serving renters and owners within Central Maine including Androscoggin and Kennebec county.

A Guide to the Eviction Process in Oakland, ME

Key Takeaways

NOT SURE WHETHER TO FILE OR DEFEND A SMALL CLAIMS CASE?

BOOK A CONSULTATION TODAY.

What’s the Eviction Process in Maine?

Notice for Lease Termination with Legal Cause

Types of Eviction Notices in Maine

Serving a Tenant with an Eviction Notice in Maine

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP THE RIGHT WAY?

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR SERVICES

Tenant Eviction Defenses in Maine

Court Proceedings and Final Eviction

Why Following the Process Matters

GET HELP NAVIGATING THE MAINE EVICTION PROCESS CORRECTLY

CONTACT US TODAY

Bottom Line

Free Rental Analysis

Praise From Our Clients

Areas We Serve

Maine's Premier Property Management Company

Serving renters and owners within Central Maine including Androscoggin and Kennebec county.

Maine's Premier Property Management Company

Serving renters and owners within Central Maine including Androscoggin and Kennebec county.

Maine's Premier Property
Management Company

Maine's Premier Property
Management Company