Free Maine Commercial Lease Agreement Template

A Maine commercial lease agreement rents non-residential property — a shop, an office, a warehouse, a workshop — to a tenant who will run a business from it. Maine handles possession through the forcible entry and detainer process in Title 14, and handles the writing requirement through the statute of frauds in Title 33.

Neither supplies much about the bargain itself. Rent, repairs, and renewal all come from the document the parties sign.

Two provisions shape a business tenancy: when the lease has to be written, and when possession can be recovered.

Putting the Lease in Writing

Maine’s statute of frauds at 33 M.R.S. § 51 bars an action on certain agreements unless the promise, contract, or agreement, or some memorandum or note of it, is in writing and signed by the party to be charged, or by a person lawfully authorized. Subsection 4 reaches any contract for the sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or of any interest in or concerning them. Subsection 5 catches an agreement not to be performed within one year.

The section adds a helpful detail: the consideration need not be expressed in the writing, and may be proved otherwise.

Grounds for Recovering Possession

14 M.R.S. § 6001(1) sets out who the forcible entry and detainer process may be maintained against. Several grounds reach a business tenancy: a disseisor who has acquired no claim by possession and improvement; a tenant holding under a written lease or contract, or a person holding under such a tenant; a tenant whose occupancy is incidental to employment; and a tenant at will whose tenancy has been terminated.

Within seven days, yes. Section 6001(1) allows the process to be maintained at the expiration or forfeiture of the term, without notice, if it is commenced within seven days from that expiration or forfeiture.

That is a narrow window and it rewards planning. A landlord who knows a term is ending and wants the space back can move immediately without serving anything, but only if the action starts inside the week.

Miss it and the position changes. The section’s other routes require the tenancy to have been terminated first, which means going back to a notice step that the seven-day route would have avoided altogether.

1. Work out rent, escalation, the term, renewal rights, and how taxes, insurance, and repairs are split.
2. Put the lease in writing and have the party to be bound sign it, given the § 51 requirements.
3. State a definite expiry date, since the seven-day route in § 6001 runs from the expiration of the term.
4. Agree your own notice and cure procedure, because the statute supplies grounds rather than a default cure period.
5. Execute the lease and note the expiry date somewhere both sides will see it.

Maine supplies process rather than substance, so a Maine commercial lease agreement carries the terms:

• Legal names of landlord and tenant, and the entity behind each signature.
• A description of the premises and any shared or common areas.
• Rent, when it falls due, and the basis for increases.
• A definite term with a stated expiry date, plus renewal rights.
• What happens if the tenant stays past the term.
• Responsibility for rates, insurance, utilities, and each category of repair.
• Permitted use, consent for assignment or subletting, and the notice and cure procedure.