How to Fire Your Property Manager in Maine

A step-by-step guide for Maine landlords switching property managers, covering notice, broker trust accounts, what to collect, and moving tenant deposits under Maine's security deposit law.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Maine has a quirk that catches owners out. Most of the states that regulate property managers do it through the real estate license law, which gives you a regulator to call when your money goes missing. Maine's license law is written around the sale and exchange of real estate, not around renting and managing.

That means your management agreement is doing nearly all the work. Read it before you do anything else.

Here is how to make the switch without losing a deposit, a tenant or a month of rent.

Step 1. Read your management agreement

Your contract decides how you exit. Look for four things.

Notice period. Thirty days' written notice is common. Some agreements run to a fixed term with no early exit.
Termination fee. Some charge one, some do not.
Leasing fee clawbacks. Check whether you owe anything for tenants the manager placed.
Handover obligations. This is the big one in Maine. If the contract does not say the manager must deliver your funds and records by a date, no state statute fills that gap for an unlicensed manager. Note what it does say and hold them to it.

If the manager broke the agreement by ignoring repairs or mishandling money, you may be able to end it sooner. That is a question for a Maine attorney.

Step 2. Send written notice

Put it in writing, by email and by any method the agreement names. State the end date, ask for a full handover by that date, and list what you expect back (see Step 4).

Keep the tone flat and factual. You want your records, not an argument.

Step 3. Trust account rules, if your manager holds a license

Plenty of Maine managers are licensed real estate brokerage agencies, and those rules are worth knowing.

A licensed agency has to keep a federally insured trust account at an authorized financial institution, used for the sole purpose of holding earnest money and other money it holds where a client has a financial interest. The account and its withdrawal orders have to name the agency and be identified as a real estate trust account (32 M.R.S. § 13178).

The designated broker can pull their own fee only within 30 days after the transaction closes or ends, and only after a full accounting to the principal. That principal is you. Trust account records stay open to inspection by the director of the Real Estate Commission during business hours (§ 13178).

The Commission's rules on agency and designated broker responsibilities sit in Chapter 400 of its rules. If a licensed manager stonewalls you on money or an accounting, bad faith, untrustworthiness and improper dealing are grounds for discipline, and you can file a complaint with the Maine Real Estate Commission (§ 13067-A).

If your manager holds no license, none of that applies. Your leverage is the contract and, if it comes to it, a civil claim.

Step 4. Collect everything

Ask for all of this before the end date.

Security deposits for every tenant, with the amount held for each one
Bank records showing rents collected, fees taken and what is still owed to you
Signed leases, renewals and addenda
Total price disclosure statements each tenant signed under 14 M.R.S. § 6030-J
Any written late fee notice given at lease signing, without which you cannot charge a late fee (§ 6028)
Tenant contact details and payment history
Open maintenance requests, vendor contacts, invoices and warranties
Keys, fobs and codes
Year-to-date income and expense reports for your taxes
Any rent increase notices already sent, and the date they went out

Step 5. Move the security deposits

This is where Maine bites. A deposit is not an asset of whoever is holding it. It cannot be commingled, and it has to sit in an account at a financial institution (14 M.R.S. § 6038).

So the money needs a proper destination before it moves. Open a dedicated deposit account first, get the transfer in writing with a per-tenant breakdown, and reconcile it against the leases.

Get this wrong and the exposure is yours. Fail to return a deposit or send an itemized statement inside 30 days on a written lease, or 21 days on a tenancy at will, and you forfeit the right to withhold any of it (§ 6033). Hold one wrongfully and you owe double the amount plus the tenant's attorney fees and court costs, with the burden on you to justify the withholding (§ 6034).

One exception worth checking. The deposit chapter does not apply to a unit in a building of no more than 5 dwelling units where you live in one of them (§ 6037).

Step 6. Tell your tenants

Tenants care about three things. Where to pay rent, who to call for repairs, and whether their deposit is safe. Send one dated message covering all three, with the day the change takes effect.

There is a legal reason to be quick about it. Anyone authorized to enter into a lease on your behalf counts as your agent for service of process and for receiving notices and demands (§ 6023). Your old manager has been the address tenants use for repair notices and habitability complaints. Tell tenants in writing where those go now, and tell the old manager to forward anything that arrives.

If the manager queued up a rent increase, count the days again. Maine requires at least 45 days' written notice before rent goes up (§ 6015).

Step 7. Take over the day to day

Line up your vendors, set up rent collection, and get a maintenance line that picks up at 2am. Maine winters make that last one real. A no-heat call on a February night is a habitability problem within hours, not days.

Who can manage property for pay in Maine

Maine's Real Estate Brokerage License Act makes it unlawful to engage in real estate brokerage without a brokerage agency license (32 M.R.S. § 13003). The act defines real estate brokerage as services for compensation on behalf of another that result in transferring an interest in real estate, listing, promoting, procuring prospects, negotiating, options, finding and buying or selling (§ 13001).

Renting, leasing and collecting rent are not on that list. Managing residential rentals for an owner in Maine does not by itself require a real estate license. Owners and lessors of their own real estate, and their regular employees acting within their normal duties, sit outside the act in any case (§ 13002).

Two practical consequences. You can self-manage your own property without a license. And a new manager may be entirely unlicensed and unregulated, so check references, ask where deposits will be held, and put the handover terms in the contract this time.

Your switching checklist

Read the agreement for notice, fees, clawbacks and handover terms
Send written notice with a hard end date
Ask a licensed manager for a full trust account accounting under § 13178
Collect deposits, bank records, leases, disclosures, notices and keys
Open a dedicated deposit account before the money moves
Reconcile deposit balances against every lease
Tell tenants where to pay, who to call and where notices go now
Recount the 45 days on any pending rent increase

Switch to Taz

Taz is an AI property manager built for landlords who have been let down before. It answers tenants day and night, routes repairs to vendors, sends rent reminders, and keeps every deposit deadline and notice date in one place, for a flat monthly price per door instead of a cut of your rent. See how Taz works.

Where this guide says a state has no rule on something, that means we found no statute setting one, which is not the same as none existing. Local ordinances and court practice can add requirements. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your management agreement and your specific facts matter. Talk to a Maine attorney before ending a contract. Last checked September 2026.