Maine is unusual in where it puts its disclosures. Several states require a landlord to tell a tenant things, and most of them attach the duty to the lease. Maine attaches some of them to the moment before money changes hands, which means they belong in the application process rather than in the pack handed over at signing. A landlord running a Maine let on a national template will usually have all the right documents and be giving them out several days too late, and lateness is the whole of the defect.
Maine puts disclosures before the money
The pattern in Maine's rental provisions is that a prospective tenant is to be given certain written information before entering into a lease or paying a deposit, not afterwards. That places the duty squarely in the application stage: at the point the unit is offered and the applicant is deciding, rather than at the point the tenancy is agreed. Building the process around that order is easier than remembering it, which is why the disclosure pack belongs stapled to the application rather than to the lease.
The energy efficiency statement is an application-stage document
Maine requires a landlord to provide a prospective tenant with a written statement about the energy efficiency of the unit, disclosing the heating source and the information the statute specifies, before the tenant enters a lease or pays a deposit. The applicant has to acknowledge receiving it. Keep the signed acknowledgement with the application rather than in the lease file, because it is evidence about a moment that happened before the tenancy existed.
The smoking policy has to be in writing too
Maine requires a written smoking policy for the unit and the common areas, disclosed to a prospective tenant before a lease is entered, and it is a policy rather than a sentence: whether smoking is permitted, where, and what the rule is in the shared parts of the building. A verbal answer at a viewing does not meet it and cannot be evidenced later.
What that means for the order of your process
Advertise, show, hand over the disclosure pack and take the acknowledgement, then take the application and any payment, then decide, then lease. Written that way the Maine requirements fall out of the sequence rather than having to be remembered at each let. The record that matters afterwards is the dated acknowledgement, which is why the application worksheet on this site keeps the disclosure receipts with the applicant rather than with the tenancy.
Questions people ask about Maine rental application
What has to be disclosed before a Maine tenant pays a deposit?
Maine requires written information about the unit's energy efficiency, including the heating source and the items the statute lists, before a lease is entered or a deposit paid, with the prospective tenant acknowledging receipt. A written smoking policy is also required before a lease is entered.
Is there a cap on a Maine application fee?
Maine does not set a statewide application fee cap, so the constraint is your own written policy and the federal rules on consumer reports. The disclosure sequence, not the fee, is where Maine differs from its neighbors.
Where should the acknowledgements be filed?
With the application, not the lease. They evidence something that happened before the tenancy began, and a file organized by tenancy will lose them for the applicants who were not offered the unit.