Permissions problem on new installation

[Cliff Hayes]

I am setting up a new mail server using imap only on Scientific Linux 
6.5 and dovecot 2.0.9.  How do I fix this problem?

I keep getting these errors regardless of permissions ... even up to 777.

Oct 15 13:56:01 avalon dovecot: imap(chayes at domain.tld): Error: 
opendir(/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir) failed: Permission denied 
(euid=497(chayes) egid=12(mail) missing +r perm: 
/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir, euid is not dir owner)

Oct 15 13:56:01 avalon dovecot: imap(chayes at domain.tld): Error: 
opendir(/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir) failed: Permission denied 
(euid=497(chayes) egid=12(mail) missing +r perm: 
/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir, euid is not dir owner)

Oct 15 13:56:01 avalon dovecot: imap(chayes at domain.tld): Error: 
opendir(/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir/new) failed: Permission 
denied (euid=497(chayes) egid=12(mail) missing +r perm: 
/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir/new, euid is not dir owner)

Oct 15 13:56:07 avalon dovecot: imap(chayes at domain.tld): Error: 
opendir(/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir/new) failed: Permission 
denied (euid=497(chayes) egid=12(mail) missing +r perm: 
/var/email/chayes at domain.tld/Maildir/new, euid is not dir owner)

Yet when i check, chayes is directory owner as follows (currently 
showing 760 but I've tried everything):

drwx------. 3 chayes mail 4096 Oct 15 12:56 chayes at domain.tld

drwxrwx---. 6 chayes mail 4096 Oct 15 13:55 Maildir

drwxrw----. 2 chayes mail 4096 Oct 15 12:56 cur
-rw-------. 1 chayes mail  104 Oct 15 12:56 dovecot.index.log
-rw-------. 1 chayes mail    0 Oct 15 12:56 dovecot.mailbox.log
-rw-------. 1 chayes mail   51 Oct 15 12:56 dovecot-uidlist
drwxrw----. 2 chayes mail 4096 Oct 15 12:56 new
-rw-------. 1 chayes mail    6 Oct 15 12:56 subscriptions
drwxrw----. 2 chayes mail 4096 Oct 15 12:56 tmp

dovecot config:

protocols = imap
mail_access_groups=mail
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir

Thanks in advance.