How much can a landlord charge for a security deposit in Missouri?

2 months' rent — Relabeling does not escape the limit: any money or property a tenant furnishes to secure performance counts, however denominated (RSMo 535.300.8). A deposit denominated for a pet is the one carve-out and sits outside the cap entirely.

How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Missouri?

30 days. The clock runs from 'the date of termination of the tenancy' (RSMo 535.300.3), NOT from the end of the month in which the tenant moves out. Within that window the landlord must either return the full deposit or furnish a written itemized list of damages plus any remaining balance.

What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in Missouri?

A landlord who wrongfully withholds all or any portion of the security deposit owes the tenant, as damages, 'twice the amount wrongfully withheld' (535.300.6). That is twice the amount wrongfully withheld, NOT twice the whole deposit.

Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in Missouri?

No — Missouri does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. Any interest a deposit earns is the landlord's property (RSMo 535.300.2). The deposit itself must be held for the tenant in a bank, credit union, or depository institution insured by an agency of the federal government, but no separate or escrow account is required.

What are the security deposit rules in Missouri?

Verified October 2, 2026 All Missouri topics →

Missouri caps security deposits at two months' rent and gives landlords thirty days after the tenancy ends to return the deposit or send a written itemized list of damages with any balance.

Cited to RSMo 535.300 subsections 1-8 and 1 more cited source · Verified October 2, 2026

The deposit must be held for the tenant in a federally insured bank, credit union, or depository institution, but any interest it earns belongs to the landlord — Missouri never pays deposit interest to tenants. Before withholding anything, the landlord must give the tenant reasonable written notice of the date and time of the move-out inspection, and the tenant has the right to be present at it. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent, damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, and losses from the tenant leaving without proper notice, and a landlord who wrongfully withholds any portion owes the tenant twice the amount wrongfully withheld. One Missouri quirk: money labeled a pet deposit is excluded from the statute's definition of a security deposit, so it sits outside the cap and the return rules entirely.

Missouri security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	2 months' rent — Relabeling does not escape the limit: any money or property a tenant furnishes to secure performance counts, however denominated (RSMo 535.300.8). A deposit denominated for a pet is the one carve-out and sits outside the cap entirely. RSMo 535.300.1: 'A landlord may not demand or receive a security deposit in excess of two months' rent.' Subsection 8 defines 'security deposit' as any deposit of money or property, HOWEVER DENOMINATED, furnished by a tenant to secure performance of any part of the rental agreement — so a 'move-in deposit', a 'damage deposit', or a refundable 'last month' held as security all count. Money or property denominated as a deposit FOR A PET is excluded from the definition entirely (535.300.8), so a pet deposit sits outside both the two-month cap and the 30-day/2x return scheme. No unit-count threshold; applies to residential rental agreements generally.
Return deadline	30 days
Deadline conditions	The clock runs from 'the date of termination of the tenancy' (RSMo 535.300.3), NOT from the end of the month in which the tenant moves out. Within that window the landlord must either return the full deposit or furnish a written itemized list of damages plus any remaining balance. The landlord complies by mailing the refund and/or itemized list to the tenant's LAST KNOWN address, so a tenant who never supplies a forwarding address can satisfy the landlord's duty at a stale one. The end-of-the-month version of the deadline is a wrong formulation circulating on landlord-help sites.
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	If anything is withheld, the landlord must furnish a written itemized list of the damages for which the deposit or any portion is withheld, along with the balance (535.300.3(2)). Withholding grounds are limited to three (535.300.4): unpaid rent; restoring the unit to move-in condition, ordinary wear and tear excepted (with a lease-based carpet-cleaning carve-out that requires the landlord to provide a receipt for actual carpet-cleaning costs within thirty days of the end of the tenancy); and actual damages from the tenant's failure to give adequate termination notice, subject to a statutory duty to make reasonable efforts to mitigate.
Separate account required	No
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	Any interest a deposit earns is the landlord's property (RSMo 535.300.2). The deposit itself must be held for the tenant in a bank, credit union, or depository institution insured by an agency of the federal government, but no separate or escrow account is required. RSMo 535.300.2 (added by H.B. 1862 in 2016 and narrowed by S.B. 581 in 2018, which removed its commingling ban and trust requirement) requires all security deposits to be 'held by the landlord for the tenant' in such an institution, and states flatly: 'Any interest earned on a security deposit shall be the property of the landlord.' No interest is ever owed to the tenant. The statute requires a federally insured institution but contains NO express separate-account, escrow, or commingling prohibition — sites claiming Missouri requires an 'escrow account' or forbids the landlord's own account overstate the text. Housing authorities created under section 99.040 and other government entities acting as landlords are exempt from this subsection — the statute's words are "shall not be subject to this subsection," which contains both the holding duty and the interest sentence.
Pet deposits	A pet deposit is expressly allowed, with no ceiling of its own. The pet-deposit rule, pet rent and fees, and the assistance-animal rules are on the pets and assistance animals page.
Non-refundable fees allowed	Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation	A landlord who wrongfully withholds all or any portion of the security deposit owes the tenant, as damages, 'twice the amount wrongfully withheld' (535.300.6). That is twice the amount wrongfully withheld, NOT twice the whole deposit. Many summaries state the penalty as double the whole deposit; the statute doubles only the amount wrongfully withheld. Subsection 7 preserves the landlord's right to recover actual damages exceeding the deposit and forbids the tenant from applying the deposit in lieu of rent.
Tenant forwarding-address duty	No affirmative statutory duty to furnish a forwarding address, but the landlord's return and itemization duties are satisfied by mailing to the tenant's LAST KNOWN address (535.300.3), and the move-out inspection notice likewise goes to the last known address or is delivered in person (535.300.5) — so a tenant who fails to update their address can lose both the inspection opportunity and the refund in practice while the landlord remains compliant.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Missouri Security Deposit Laws (verified October 2, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/security-deposits/missouri/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Generate a Missouri security-deposit return letter — free, no signup, built on the same verified Missouri law as this page.

Editable Missouri deposit kit — the deposit disposition letter, the move-in receipt with the custody and interest statements, a deposits-held register with the return deadline computed, and the rules fact sheet built on the verified Missouri rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Notes and caveats

The 30-day clock runs from termination, not from month-end — The deadline starts on the date of termination of the tenancy. Several widely used summaries state 'within 30 days from the end of the month in which the tenant moves out' — that is not the statutory text, and it can misstate the deadline by weeks.
Penalty trap: twice the amount wrongfully withheld, not twice the deposit — 535.300.6 doubles the amount wrongfully withheld. Several summaries say 'twice the security deposit amount' — wrong, and the difference can be large when only part of the deposit is in dispute.
No escrow rule — a federally insured institution is the whole requirement — The holding rule at 535.300.2 is real: the deposit must be held for the tenant in a bank, credit union, or depository institution insured by a federal agency, and any interest earned belongs to the landlord. But the text in force since August 28, 2018 contains no express escrow, segregation, or commingling ban (the 2016 act that added the subsection also barred commingling and required a trust account, and a 2018 act removed both), so sites claiming 'deposits cannot be held in the landlord's personal account' or 'escrow required' go beyond the statute.
'However denominated' — the label on the money does not control — The subsection 8 definition is label-agnostic, with a single express pet-deposit exclusion. Anything held to secure performance of the rental agreement is a security deposit whatever the lease calls it. The definition never mentions prepaid rent, so genuinely prepaid rent — money applied to rent rather than held as security — sits outside the section; this is a definitional point, not a cap on prepaid rent.
What Missouri treats as a deposit, whatever it is called — Missouri defines a security deposit as any deposit of money or property, however denominated, furnished by a tenant to secure the performance of any part of the rental agreement, including damages to the dwelling unit (RSMo 535.300.8). Money taken at move-in that stands behind the tenancy is therefore a security deposit whatever the lease calls it, and it must be returned in full within thirty days after the tenancy ends or accounted for with a written itemized list of damages and the balance. Section 535.300 permits no part of that money to be kept as a nonrefundable charge, and withholding is limited to unpaid rent, restoring the unit to its move-in condition with ordinary wear and tear excepted, and actual damages from inadequate termination notice. Money or property denominated as a deposit for a pet is the one exclusion from the definition and is governed by the lease instead. Charges that are not taken as security for performance, such as an application fee, fall outside this section.
The move-out inspection notice must be in writing — 535.300.5 requires reasonable notice in writing of the date and time of the inspection, sent to the tenant's last known address or delivered in person, and the inspection itself must be at a reasonable time. Secondary sources frequently drop the writing requirement.
Cities and counties may not cap the deposit — Since August 28, 2025 no Missouri county or city, including one with a charter form of government, may enact, maintain or enforce an ordinance or resolution that limits the amount of security deposit a landlord may require from a prospective tenant. The state ceiling of two months' rent is unchanged, and so is the pet-deposit carve-out, which sits outside the definition of a security deposit. The same law bars local ordinances regulating the amount of rent, restricting a landlord's use of income-qualifying methods, credit scores, credit reports, eviction or property damage history or criminal history, requiring a landlord to rent to a person whose lawful source of income to pay rent includes funding from a federal or other housing assistance program, and requiring an automatic right of first refusal, and it leaves in place a city or county ordinance barring discrimination against a recipient of veterans' benefits.

Common questions: Missouri security deposits

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much can a landlord charge for a security deposit in Missouri?: 2 months' rent — Relabeling does not escape the limit: any money or property a tenant furnishes to secure performance counts, however denominated (RSMo 535.300.8). A deposit denominated for a pet is the one carve-out and sits outside the cap entirely.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Missouri?: 30 days. The clock runs from 'the date of termination of the tenancy' (RSMo 535.300.3), NOT from the end of the month in which the tenant moves out. Within that window the landlord must either return the full deposit or furnish a written itemized list of damages plus any remaining balance.
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in Missouri?: A landlord who wrongfully withholds all or any portion of the security deposit owes the tenant, as damages, 'twice the amount wrongfully withheld' (535.300.6). That is twice the amount wrongfully withheld, NOT twice the whole deposit.
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in Missouri?: No — Missouri does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. Any interest a deposit earns is the landlord's property (RSMo 535.300.2). The deposit itself must be held for the tenant in a bank, credit union, or depository institution insured by an agency of the federal government, but no separate or escrow account is required.
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in Missouri?: Not addressed by statute.

Citations

RSMo 535.300 · subsections 1-8 (verified 2026) Official source
RSMo § 441.043 · 2(3), 3, 4 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Missouri Revisor of Statutes site (revisor.mo.gov), read again on October 2, 2026 with each page's effective date and history line: RSMo 535.300, 441.043, 441.050, 441.060 and 700.600; 535.060, 415.400 and 415.417; 441.020 to 441.040, 441.065, 441.233 and 441.560; the rent and possession and unlawful detainer sections of chapters 535 and 534, with 535.012, 535.050, 535.200 and 535.210; the expedited procedure of 441.710 to 441.880; 701.308; and the time-computation sections 1.040 and 506.060. The section lists of chapters 441, 534, 535 and 700 were read for the negative answers: no section of chapters 441, 534 or 535 sets an entry notice, a late fee or a rent-increase notice, and the one limit on rent increases is RSMo 700.600.2, for manufactured and mobile home land lease communities. The Senate's Truly Agreed To and Finally Passed lists for 2024, 2025 and 2026 (102 bills in 2026) were read with the bills' pages and truly agreed texts: no 2026 act changed an answer on security deposits, late fees, entry, rent increases or eviction, and the 2025 amendments to 441.043 (H.B. 595 & 343, effective August 28, 2025) are in force and incorporated. Paragon Group, Inc. v. Ampleman, 878 S.W.2d 878 (Mo. Ct. App. 1994), was read in the reporter.