Does a window or siding job need a permit here?

Maine has one building and energy code, but it lets each town decide which work needs a permit: the state changed the residential code so that a permit is required “where required by municipal ordinance.” The result is a patchwork. Some towns name a re-side or a same-size window as work that needs no permit, some require a permit for any alteration or repair, a few set a dollar threshold, and many publish nothing about either trade. Of the 64 towns we cover, 44 publish an answer on re-siding that we can point to. “Not published” in the table means nothing is written down, not that no permit is needed.

The table

Every town links to its own page, with the published wording, the code office's number and the sources.

How to read the answers

• No usually comes with a condition. Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Brunswick, Buxton, Lyman and Alfred exempt a re-side only when nothing structural changes; Hollis's exemption ends as soon as sheathing or framing has to be replaced; South Berwick's covers replacing siding with like siding. Open the wall, find rot, and the answer can change.
• Yes means the town names the work (Saco names vinyl siding and window replacement; Wells, Harpswell, Falmouth and Kennebunk name windows) or requires a permit for any alteration or repair and leaves siding off its list of exemptions.
• Depends means a published test decides it: Phippsburg over $1,000, Kittery and Eliot around $2,000, Baldwin under $25,000, Gray and Standish only for structural work.
• A new or bigger window opening means a new header, which is structural in every town's rules we read, so plan on a permit for it everywhere.

Small towns and the state code

A town of more than 4,000 people must enforce the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code; a smaller town need not, but it may not adopt a different code (10 M.R.S. § 9724). That is why some town pages here say the town need not enforce the energy code. The window figure is the same either way.

Contractors, contracts and your right to cancel

Maine does not license siding or window contractors; the Attorney General's notice that goes with every home construction contract over $3,000 is headed “Contractors Are Not Licensed.” The protection Maine gives you is the contract itself. Any job to build, remodel or repair a home for more than $3,000 in materials or labor, window replacements named, has to be in writing and signed by both sides before work starts, with the start and completion dates, the total price, a down payment of no more than one-third, the statutory warranty and a written change-order rule (10 M.R.S. §§ 1486–1490). If the sale started with a visit or call you did not ask for, you can void it by mailing written notice within three full business days, and the seller may not start work that gets fixed to the house while you still can (32 M.R.S. §§ 4663, 4664 and 4664-A). A seller with no place of business in your town who goes door to door selling siding or storm windows needs a state door-to-door home repair license.

Where this comes into the work

• Siding replacement
• Window replacement
• Egress windows

Sources: legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · maine.gov · legislature.maine.gov · maine.gov · maine.gov · content.civicplus.com · sacomaine.org · wellstown.org