Maine Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal
Maine requires the seller of a one- to four-unit home to give the buyer a written property disclosure statement (33 M.R.S. § 173) no later than the buyer’s offer (§ 174). If it arrives after the offer, the buyer has 72 hours from receipt to withdraw or terminate.
The rules sit in Title 33, chapter 7, subchapter 1-A (§§ 171–179), in force since January 1, 2000. The newest amendment to § 173, on PFAS in well water, took effect July 29, 2026.
One to four dwelling units, sold, swapped or optioned
Section 171 defines “residential real property” as “real estate consisting of one or not more than 4 residential dwelling units.” Section 172 applies the subchapter to “the transfer of any interest in residential real property, whether by sale, exchange, installment land contract, lease with an option to purchase or any other option to purchase.” A broker is mentioned only to say that a licensee in the deal also answers to the licensing law in Title 32, chapter 114. A five-unit building or a commercial lot falls outside this subchapter.
Maine does not print a state form. Section 171 calls the statement “a written disclosure form prepared by a seller pursuant to section 173,” and the Real Estate Commission’s rule refers to “Forms used by an agency.” What the form must cover is set by statute.
The eight topics § 173 lists
- Water supply. Type of system; for a private supply, its location, malfunctions, the date of the latest water test, and whether the seller has had “an unsatisfactory water test or, a water test with notations or a water test that detects perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances” (the PFAS words were added by P.L. 2025, ch. 746).
- Heat. Type, age, service company and last service call, annual fuel consumption, malfunctions “within the past 2 years,” and the last chimney and vent inspection.
- Waste disposal. For a private system, details of the tank and leach field, malfunctions, the last servicing and who services it.
- Hazardous materials. “The presence or prior removal” of hazardous materials, “including, but not limited to” asbestos, lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes, radon, underground oil storage tanks and methamphetamine.
- Known defects. Section 171 defines one as a condition “known by the seller” that significantly lowers value, significantly impairs occupants’ health or safety, or, left unrepaired, significantly shortens the life of the premises.
- Access. Whether the property is reached by a public way. If it is not, the seller must say who maintains the access, “including any responsible road association, if known by the seller.”
- Flood. Whether the property lies in a FEMA special flood hazard area on the effective map, its flood zone, and a copy of the map panel. The seller must also say whether, during the seller’s ownership, floods affected the property or damaged a structure, whether flood insurance claims were filed (with dates), and whether flood-recovery aid was paid (with dates).
- Shoreland zoning. A notice of violation, pending enforcement action, litigation, court judgment, or settlement or consent agreement under a shoreland zoning ordinance.
Section 173-A adds a handout. Unless the sale is exempt, the seller must also give the buyer state health information on “arsenic in private water supplies and arsenic in treated wood.”
Twelve transfers § 172 leaves out
Section 172 exempts these transfers:
- transfers under court order, including estate administration ordered by a court, writs of execution, foreclosure sales, bankruptcy trustees, eminent domain and specific-performance decrees;
- a defaulting owner’s transfer to the mortgagee or deed-of-trust beneficiary;
- power-of-sale and foreclosure-decree sales, and a resale by a lender that took the house at such a sale or “by a deed in lieu of foreclosure”;
- transfers “by a fiduciary in the course of administration of a decedent’s estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust”;
- transfers from co-owners “solely to one or more other coowners”;
- transfers by will or intestate succession;
- transfers to a spouse or to someone “in the lineal line of consanguinity” of an owner;
- transfers between spouses under a divorce or separate-maintenance judgment or its property settlement;
- transfers to or from a government entity;
- a relocation company’s resale, but only “as long as the entity makes available to the purchaser a copy of the property disclosure statement” it received from the prior owner;
- transfers to a living trust;
- corrective or confirmatory deeds given without added consideration or a change in ownership.
New construction is not on the list.
The 72-hour window and when it closes
Section 174(1) sets the deadline: the seller “shall deliver or cause to be delivered” the statement “no later than the time the purchaser makes an offer.” For a lease with an option, the deadline is when the option is exercised.
Late delivery triggers § 174(2): “the purchaser may terminate any resulting real estate contract or withdraw the offer no later than 72 hours after receipt of the property disclosure statement.” The count is 72 hours, not three business days, and it starts at receipt. A buyer who backs out this way does so “without penalty,” and “any deposit must be promptly returned.”
The right does not last indefinitely. Under § 174(4) it is “waived conclusively if not exercised prior to settlement or occupancy, whichever is earlier,” or before settlement in a lease-option purchase. Other contract rights to terminate survive. Section 174(5) adds that a sale is not “invalidated solely because” someone failed to comply.
If the seller learns before settlement or occupancy that the statement contains “an error, inaccuracy or omission,” § 175 requires “a written supplemental disclosure.” Changes caused by events after delivery are not a violation.
What the statement is not
Section 176 says the statement and any supplement “are not a warranty by the seller” and are “not intended to be a part of any contract.” A seller may answer that an item is unknown, and “is not obligated under this subchapter to make any specific investigation or inquiry.” The buyer’s duty to inspect stays in place.
Section 177 relieves the seller of liability for an error only if both conditions hold. The error must have been outside the seller’s “actual knowledge,” or based on a public agency or a licensed or expert source the seller “reasonably believed to be correct.” The seller also must not have been “negligent in obtaining information from a 3rd party.”
Section 178 keeps other law alive: the subchapter does not limit any duty “that may exist in common law in order to avoid fraud, misrepresentation or deceit.” On that common law, the Law Court restated in Alrig USA Acquisitions LLC v. MBD Realty LLC, 2025 ME 11 (a commercial sale) that without a special relationship “no duty to disclose defects in the premises exists and the doctrine of caveat emptor applies,” while active concealment, “steps taken by a defendant to hide the true state of affairs,” can support fraud. The court pointed to Fitzgerald v. Gamester, 658 A.2d 1065 (Me. 1995): the sellers there had been using a neighbor’s water, which created the appearance of safe drinking water while their own well was contaminated.
Shoreland septic and buried oil tanks
Under 30-A M.R.S. § 4216, anyone transferring property with a subsurface wastewater system in a shoreland area must give a written statement on “whether the system has malfunctioned during the 180 days preceding the date of transfer.” The buyer must have the system inspected by a certified inspector before purchase (§ 4216(2)(A)); if weather makes that impossible, the inspection must be done within 9 months after the transfer. If the inspection finds the system malfunctioning, it must be repaired or replaced within one year after the transfer. No inspection is required for a system installed within 3 years before closing, when the seller hands over a certified inspection report from the 3 years before the transfer, or when the buyer certifies to the local plumbing inspector that the system will be replaced within one year.
Under 38 M.R.S. § 563(6), an owner selling land with an underground oil storage facility must give the buyer written notice of the facility, its registration number, whether it was abandoned in place, and that it is regulated by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Brokers carry their own duty
A seller’s agent “shall disclose in a timely manner to a prospective buyer all material defects pertaining to the physical condition of the property” that the agent knew of or reasonably should have known (32 M.R.S. § 13273(2)(A)). Commission rule 02-039 C.M.R. ch. 410, §§ 14–20 has listing and selling licensees, and a licensee in a sale with no listing agency, gather water, heating, septic, hazardous-materials, flood and access information and put it in writing for buyers “prior to or during preparation of an offer.” These are licensee duties. They do not replace the seller’s own statement under § 173.
Pre-1978 houses: the federal lead rule
Lead paint disclosure is federal law (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 40 C.F.R. part 745, subpart F). Before the buyer is bound, the seller hands over the EPA pamphlet, discloses known lead-based paint and available reports, and allows “a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time)” for an inspection, which the buyer may waive in writing (§ 745.110). Foreclosure sales are exempt (§ 745.101). Housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities and 0-bedroom dwellings fall outside the rule unless a child under 6 lives or is expected to live there.
Questions from Maine sellers and buyers
I’m the personal representative selling my father’s house. Do I fill out the statement?
Not under § 173 if you sell as fiduciary “in the course of administration of a decedent’s estate” (§ 172(4)). The list does not name an heir who already holds title and sells in his or her own name. The federal lead rule has no estate exemption.
I signed an offer before I saw the disclosure. Can I still get out?
Yes, within 72 hours after you receive it, and only before settlement or occupancy, whichever comes first (§ 174(2), (4)). Your deposit comes back.
Can I write “unknown” on questions I can’t answer?
Yes, if the information really is unknown or unavailable to you (§ 176(1)). An answer that hides something you know is not protected by § 177.
We found a problem a year after closing that the sellers must have known about. Is there a deadline?
Maine’s general limitation period is 6 years from accrual (14 M.R.S. § 752). If the claim is for fraud, or the defendant fraudulently concealed it, the action may be brought “within 6 years after the person entitled thereto discovers that he has just cause of action” (§ 859).
Our camp on the lake has a septic system. Anything extra?
Yes, if the system is within a shoreland area as described in 38 M.R.S. § 435. Give the 180-day malfunction statement under 30-A M.R.S. § 4216. If a certified inspector checked the system within 3 years before the transfer, hand over that report; the buyer then does not need a new inspection. Any shoreland zoning violation notice or enforcement matter goes on the § 173 statement too.