Maine HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

1. Overview: Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Maine?

A Maine condominium restricts short-term rentals through its recorded declaration under the Maine Condominium Act, and a planned community does so through its CC&Rs; separately, short-term rentals face contested local regulation in tourist markets such as Portland and Bar Harbor. Condominiums are governed by the Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. §1601-101 et seq., a statute based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act.¹ Planned communities (non-condominium homeowners associations) have no comprehensive Maine statute; they are governed primarily by the recorded CC&Rs, the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act (Title 13-B) for corporate governance, and common law.²

The Condominium Act is condominium-only. It does not govern planned communities, and its provisions should not be extended to them.¹² Maine does not appear to preempt local short-term-rental regulation, and that regulation is intensely local: municipalities act under home rule, and their registration and cap ordinances govern the owner-to-government relationship rather than association authority.³ Maine also has a distinctive court structure with no intermediate appellate court; a contested enforcement dispute proceeds from the Superior Court directly to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which is called the Law Court when sitting in its appellate capacity.¹¹ The sections below set out the legal framework, the operational mechanics of adopting and enforcing a restriction, recent legislative and judicial activity, and how Maine compares nationally.

2. The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The Condominium Act and the CC&R-primary planned-community framework

The Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. §1601-101 et seq., is modeled on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and took effect on January 1, 1983.¹¹³ By its own applicability provision, it applies to condominiums created after that date and to older condominiums (originally formed under the Unit Ownership Act) that amend their instruments to opt in.¹² The Act is a condominium statute, not a full common-interest-ownership act; it does not govern planned communities.

Planned communities occupy different terrain. Maine has no comprehensive planned-community statute. A non-condominium homeowners association draws its authority from the recorded CC&Rs, is typically organized as a nonprofit corporation under Title 13-B (which supplies corporate governance rules such as the books-and-records requirement at 13-B M.R.S. §715), and is otherwise governed by common law.² For both community types, the governing documents (the declaration for a condominium, the CC&Rs for a planned community) are the source of any authority to restrict rentals. That authority is not automatic: a community needs a legal or contractual basis in its documents or in statute to enforce a restriction.

A practical distinction runs through the analysis. Authority over long-term leasing and authority over short-term or transient rentals both flow from the same governing-document source, but they are analytically separate. A declaration that limits leasing generally, or that requires residential-only use, may or may not reach transient short-term rentals depending on its wording. Maine courts construe restrictive covenants strictly and resolve doubt in favor of the free use of property, so a restriction that does not clearly reach short-term rentals may not be enforceable against them.¹⁴ Drafting precision therefore matters: a community that wants to reach nightly and weekly rentals should say so expressly rather than rely on a general leasing or "residential use" clause.

2B. Restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

A condominium adopts a rental restriction by amending its declaration. The Act sets a two-tier threshold. The general rule under §1602-117(a) allows amendment by owners holding at least 67% of the votes, or a larger majority the declaration specifies.⁴ But §1602-117(d) provides that, absent express authorization elsewhere in the Act, no amendment may "change... the uses to which any unit is restricted... in the absence of unanimous consent of the unit owners."⁴ A rental restriction is, in substance, a change to the permitted use of a unit. The Law Court has not squarely decided whether adding a rental restriction triggers the unanimous-consent rule, but the statutory text points strongly toward that reading, and courts in other Uniform-Condominium-Act states with the same language have treated rental-use restrictions as use changes. This is the single most consequential feature of Maine condominium practice on this topic: a board cannot impose a new rental ban on unwilling owners by a 67% vote if the amendment restricts use, because unanimity is required.

Grandfathering follows from that structure rather than from any statutory shield. The Maine Condominium Act, being based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act rather than the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, does not contain the 2008 rental-restriction owner-protection provision (under which a new rental restriction does not bind a non-consenting owner until the unit is transferred).⁴ Maine also provides no Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield. Instead, protection for existing owners comes from the unanimous-consent requirement itself (a use restriction cannot pass over a dissenting owner) and from the declaration and common law. Maine does not limit an association's rental authority by statute the way California (Civil Code §4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. §33-1806.01) do; the California and Arizona models should not be imported. Where owners unanimously consent, or where the declaration already contains a rental restriction or a mechanism authorizing one, the restriction can be valid and enforceable.

2C. State law, tax, and the contested local layer

Maine has no statewide statute preempting local short-term-rental regulation and no statewide short-term-rental registration system.³ Regulation is layered: the state collects a lodging tax, and municipalities regulate registration, caps, and zoning under home rule. Portland runs one of the most restrictive regimes, the product of council action and referendum activity. For 2026, Portland caps mainland non-owner-occupied short-term rentals at 1.5% of the prior year's registered long-term rentals (293 units for 2026), bars new tenant-occupied short-term rentals, and requires annual registration.⁵ Bar Harbor, the gateway to Acadia National Park, capped non-primary-residence vacation rentals (its VR-2 category) at 9% of dwelling units by a 2021 referendum; that cap was upheld by the Law Court in 2024, and the town revised its owner-occupied (VR-1) rules again in late 2025.⁶¹⁵

The Maine lodging tax applies to short-term rentals. Section 1811(1)(D)(3) of Title 36 imposes a 9% sales tax on the rental of living quarters in any hotel, rooming house, or tourist or trailer camp, a rate higher than the general sales-tax rate.⁷ Maine Revenue Services applies the tax to stays of fewer than 28 continuous days; longer stays can qualify for exemption, and a person renting a single unit for fewer than 15 days per year is generally not a retailer required to collect it.⁸

The critical point for associations is that this local and tax layer regulates the owner-to-government relationship and neither grants nor removes association authority. An owner who satisfies Portland's registration and cap rules may still violate a condominium declaration that prohibits transient rentals, and an owner whose declaration permits short-term rentals may still be unable to operate because the municipality caps or bars them. Portland has built the two systems' independence into its own paperwork: an applicant whose unit sits in a condominium or homeowners association must submit an attestation from an authorized association representative that the governing documents allow the use.⁵

3. Operational mechanics and enforcement

Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common mechanism is a minimum-lease-term restriction (for example, a declaration provision setting a floor of 30 days, or longer), which converts the transient-rental question into a lease-length rule. In a condominium, whether such a provision can be added by amendment turns on §1602-117: if it restricts the use to which a unit may be put, it requires unanimous consent under subsection (d), not the 67% default of subsection (a).⁴ Rental caps (limiting the number or percentage of units that may be rented) are not addressed by the Act and depend on the declaration; the same amendment analysis applies. Short of amending the declaration, an association may adopt internal registration, owner-information, and lease-filing requirements through its rulemaking and management powers under §1603-102, provided the rules are consistent with the declaration and bylaws.¹ A statutory default rule may generally be varied by the governing documents only where the Act expressly permits; §1601-104 provides that the Act's provisions may not be varied by agreement except as expressly allowed.¹⁶

Enforcement

Before imposing a fine for a short-term-rental violation, a condominium association must provide notice and an opportunity to be heard. Section 1603-102(a)(11) authorizes the association to "levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws and rules and regulations" only "after notice and an opportunity to be heard."⁹ This is a statutory floor for condominiums; a planned community's fining procedure is set by its CC&Rs and by general corporate and common-law fairness principles. Available remedies include fines, injunctive relief to stop the prohibited use, and the assessment lien. Under §1603-116, unless the declaration provides otherwise, fines and charges levied under §1603-102 are enforceable as assessments, which means an unpaid fine can become a lien on the unit.¹⁰ A contested enforcement action is filed in the Maine Superior Court (the trial court of general jurisdiction), with appeal directly to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court; Maine has no intermediate appellate court to insert into that path.¹¹

Association enforcement and local-government enforcement run on separate tracks. A municipality enforces its registration and cap ordinance through its code enforcement officer, with appeals to the municipal board of appeals and then to Superior Court under Rule 80B; the association enforces its governing documents through the process above. The two can proceed independently against the same owner, and compliance with one does not cure a violation of the other.

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills

The only Maine Condominium Act amendment in recent sessions was PL 2023, c. 198 (LD 1289, 131st Legislature), which amended §1602-101 to permit conveyance of unfinished condominium units under a written completion agreement. It did not touch §1602-117, rental authority, or short-term rentals.¹⁸

Recent rulings

No Maine Law Court decision from the past 36 months squarely decides whether a condominium or planned-community declaration may restrict short-term rentals, or interprets §1602-117(d)'s unanimous-consent rule as applied to a rental restriction. Editors should treat the §1602-117(d) reading in Section 2B as a text-based inference, not a holding.

Active debates

At the local level, Bar Harbor continued to revise its short-term-rental ordinance through late 2025, and Portland's cap tightened for 2026; both remain contested and could change again.⁵¹⁵ No active state proposal to preempt local STR regulation, to create a statewide STR registry, or to alter association rental authority was pending as of the last verification date.

5. National positioning and related coverage

Maine sits toward the declaration-driven end of the national spectrum. It has a Uniform-Condominium-Act-based condominium statute but no comprehensive planned-community statute, which leaves planned-community rental authority almost entirely to the CC&Rs and common law. Unlike Florida and Arizona, Maine does not appear to preempt local short-term-rental bans, and unlike California (Civil Code §4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. §33-1806.01), it does not limit HOA rental authority by statute. Its most distinctive feature is procedural rather than substantive: the §1602-117(d) unanimous-consent requirement for use-restriction amendments gives Maine condominium owners strong protection against a new rental ban imposed by supermajority. The contested local ordinances and the 9% lodging tax restrain local governments and owners, not associations. For a multi-state operator entering Maine, the practical takeaways are three: a condominium-only statute (with no planned-community equivalent), a CC&R-primary planned-community regime that requires reading each community's recorded documents, and a court system with no intermediate appellate court, so appeals go straight to the Law Court.

HOA Weekly's Maine Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and local governments act. Federal frameworks (the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule) also apply to Maine associations regardless of the state framework.

Footnotes

1. 33 M.R.S. §1603-102, Powers of unit owners' association (Maine Revised Statutes, Title 33, Chapter 31) ↩
2. 33 M.R.S. §1601-102, Applicability (Maine Condominium Act) ↩
3. 33 M.R.S. §1601-116, Effective date ("This Act shall be effective on January 1, 1983") ↩
4. Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, 13-B M.R.S. (Title 13-B, Maine Revised Statutes) ↩
5. 33 M.R.S. §1602-117, Amendment of declaration (subsection (a) 67% threshold; subsection (d) unanimous consent for changes to "the uses to which any unit is restricted") ↩
6. 33 M.R.S. §1603-116, Lien for assessments (fines and charges under §1603-102 enforceable as assessments unless the declaration provides otherwise) ↩
7. 33 M.R.S. §1603-102(a)(11) (fines "after notice and an opportunity to be heard") ↩
8. 36 M.R.S. §1811 (9% tax on the value of rental of living quarters) ↩
9. Maine Land Use Planning Commission, Short-Term Rentals in the Commission's Service Area (state study affirming continued local regulation; no statewide STR license) ↩
10. City of Portland, Maine, Short-Term Rental Registration (annual registration; 2026 caps; association-attestation requirement, City Code Chapter 6) ↩
11. Brooks v. Town of Bar Harbor, 2024 ME 21 (Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Law Court, upholding Bar Harbor's short-term-rental cap ordinance) ↩
12. Maine Revenue Services, Instructional Bulletin No. 32, Rental of Living Quarters (28-day and 15-day thresholds; higher rate on lodging) ↩
13. State of Maine Judicial Branch, Courts (Superior Court as principal trial court; Supreme Judicial Court sits as the Law Court on appeal; no intermediate appellate court) ↩
14. LD 1181, 132nd Maine Legislature, An Act Regarding the Designation of Short-term Rental Units as Commercial or Residential in Use (died; Minority ONTP report accepted June 5, 2025) ↩
15. 33 M.R.S. §1602-101, Creation of condominium (amended by PL 2023, c. 198, permitting conveyance of unfinished units) ↩
16. 33 M.R.S. §1602-103, Construction and validity of declaration and bylaws ↩
17. Brooks v. Town of Bar Harbor, 2024 ME 21 (Bar Harbor's 9% VR-2 vacation-rental cap adopted by 2021 referendum upheld) ↩
18. The Village at Ocean's End Condominium Association v. Southwest Harbor Properties LLC, 2025 ME 85 (Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Law Court) ↩
19. 33 M.R.S. §1601-104, Variation by agreement (Act's provisions may not be varied except as expressly provided) ↩