Cumberland County, ME Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Because Cumberland County has no codified zoning, building, or housing ordinance, the operative occupancy baseline is the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC) adopted under Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 25 §2451 et seq. MUBEC incorporates the 2015 IBC/IRC/IECC with Maine amendments and is mandatory in any municipality with a population of 4,000 or more — a threshold every one of Cumberland County's 28 municipalities meets or whose surrounding incorporated places do, with Portland (68,408), South Portland (26,498), Westbrook (20,400), and Scarborough (22,135) being the largest. MUBEC's IRC R304 / IBC 1004 set the maximum occupant load based on net floor area (200 sq ft per occupant for residential dwelling units), and IRC R303 sets minimum bedroom dimensions (70 sq ft minimum, 50 sq ft per additional occupant). Municipal STR ordinances within the county translate this into hard caps — e.g., Portland Code Ch. 6 Art. IX limits occupancy of a registered short-term rental to two persons per bedroom plus two additional persons, with a hard ceiling of 12 occupants per dwelling unit (whichever is lower). Mandatory Shoreland Zoning Act provisions under Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 38 §435 et seq. — overlaying every great pond, river, freshwater wetland, and tidal water margin in Cumberland County (including the Casco Bay coast, Sebago Lake, and the Presumpscot River corridor) — also restrict expansion of nonconforming structures, indirectly capping the bedroom count many lakeshore and coastal cottages can legally support.