Missouri Landlord-Tenant Laws 2026: What Renters and Landlords Need to Know
Missouri Renting, Statute by Statute: The 2026 Update
Missouri never adopted a Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. There’s no county-by-county trap to check here. RSMo Chapters 441 and 535 apply the same way in every county. But one common claim needs fixing anyway. Repair-and-deduct “not codified statewide” is wrong. § 441.234 is real. It’s detailed, and it has its own dollar caps. There’s a genuinely new wrinkle too. RSMo § 441.043, amended by HB 595 and effective August 28, 2025, now bars Missouri cities and counties from enacting, maintaining, or enforcing their own ordinances on several fronts. One of them is narrower than “source of income” in general: it reaches ordinances that bar refusing a tenant specifically because their income comes from a federal or other housing assistance program — not source-of-income protection as a broad category. The others: screening-criteria limits, security-deposit caps, and automatic right-of-first-refusal rules. It’s not absolute. A city can still regulate property it owns itself, and an ordinance protecting veterans’ benefits as a source of income survives untouched. Note the verbs: the statute bars a city from enacting a new ordinance of this kind, but also from maintaining or enforcing one already on the books. Whether any specific pre-2025 city ordinance falls within that housing-assistance-program wording, and what its current status is, is a separate question the state statute doesn’t answer by itself — check a city’s own current published position rather than assuming an older ordinance’s text still controls.
Security Deposits in Missouri
| Requirement | Missouri Law |
|---|---|
| Maximum Deposit | 2 months’ rent (RSMo § 535.300.1) |
| Holding Requirement | Must sit in a federally insured bank, credit union, or depository institution — any interest earned belongs to the landlord, not the tenant |
| Return Deadline | 30 days after the tenancy ends: full refund, or an itemized list of what’s withheld plus the balance |
| Wrongful Withholding Penalty | Twice the amount wrongfully withheld. The statute says “shall,” not “may,” once wrongful withholding is proven |
Before that 30-day deadline runs, the landlord owes the tenant written notice of when the move-out inspection will happen. The tenant has the right to be there for it. Easy to miss. Easy to lose track of, if nobody mentions it.
Lease Agreements and Disclosures
A Missouri lease under one year doesn’t need to be in writing. It still holds up. Before signing, a landlord owes the tenant:
- Flooding history, for property in a floodplain
- Known meth contamination history
- Lead-based paint hazards for housing built before 1978 (federal requirement)
- The landlord’s or manager’s name and where to reach them
St. Louis layers something extra on top. A residential lead-testing ordinance. It requires proactive testing in pre-1978 units, not just disclosing what’s already known.
Rent Increases and Late Fees
| Rule | Missouri Law |
|---|---|
| Rent Control | Barred statewide |
| Notice for Increase | 30 days for month-to-month |
| Late Fee Limit | Not addressed by statute; the lease itself has to spell it out |
| Grace Period | None imposed by law |
Eviction Process in Missouri
Missouri is genuinely unusual here. For nonpayment, the landlord doesn’t wait out a fixed notice period before filing. RSMo § 535.020 says the notice normally required for other landlord-tenant actions “is not required prior to filing” a rent-and-possession case. The landlord still needs something, though: a demand for the overdue rent. Filing without ever demanding payment first isn’t allowed. Once that demand goes unanswered, the case can go to court the same day.
| Eviction Type | Notice Period | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Payment of Rent | No fixed waiting period, but a demand for rent is required first | Rent-and-possession action under § 535.020 |
| No-Cause, Month-to-Month | 30 days’ written notice | Ends the periodic tenancy |
How long a case takes from filing to lockout isn’t tracked as one verified number. It never is. A county’s docket does more to move that figure than a flat range in a guide.
Maintenance and Repair Obligations
Implied Warranty of Habitability
Missouri’s habitability duty comes from case law, not a statute. King v. Moorehead, 495 S.W.2d 65 (Mo. Ct. App. 1973), read a warranty of fitness into every residential lease. No 2020s legislation replaced it with a statutory version.
Repair-and-Deduct — Real, Capped, and Gated by a Code Violation
§ 441.234 gives a genuine self-help right. It comes loaded with preconditions most guides skip. Six straight months in the unit. Current on rent. No uncured lease violation during that stretch. The problem itself has to violate a local municipal housing or building code — a habitability complaint alone doesn’t qualify without that. From there: written notice, a 14-day response window (faster in an emergency), and a repair cost capped at whichever is greater, $300 or half the periodic rent, but never more than one month’s rent for that repair. Deduct more than one month’s rent total in any 12-month stretch, and the excess isn’t covered. One more gate exists. If the landlord disputes the repair in writing during the notice period, the tenant needs a municipal certification of the code violation first. Subsection 2 closes with its own non-waiver clause: “No lease agreement shall contain a waiver of the rights described in this section.”
Tenant Rights and Protections
| Protection | Missouri Law |
|---|---|
| Entry Notice | Missouri law doesn’t fix a specific number of hours here — landlords are held to reasonableness instead, both in timing and notice |
| Retaliation Protection | Recognized against a rent increase, service cut, or eviction filing tied to a code complaint or similar protected activity — no statute names a specific presumption window here |
| Domestic Violence / Sexual Assault / Stalking | RSMo § 441.920 bars denying tenancy, evicting, or citing a lease violation because someone is or has been a victim. It’s built as an anti-discrimination and eviction-defense statute, not an unconditional right to walk away rent-free. A tenant who already left and is later sued for rent has a defense, if they notified the landlord and gave documentation — a professional’s signed statement, or a law-enforcement/court record. A landlord may still charge a reasonable fee for ending the lease early under this section |
Sit with that last point for a second. A reader expecting a clean, fee-free exit won’t find one here. Several other states structure this right that way. Missouri’s version lets the landlord charge for it anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Missouri have a repair-and-deduct law? Yes, under § 441.234. It only applies after six months of tenancy, only for conditions that violate a local housing code. Capped at $300 or half a month’s rent per repair, never more than one month’s total, with a 14-day landlord response window first.
Does a Missouri landlord have to give notice before filing an eviction for unpaid rent? Not the fixed-day notice used elsewhere in the law. But a demand for the overdue rent is still required first. Once that demand goes unmet, the case can proceed without a waiting period.
What happens if a Missouri landlord wrongfully keeps a security deposit? The tenant recovers twice the amount wrongfully withheld. No bad-faith requirement hedges that. The tenant also has the right to be notified of, and present for, the move-out inspection.
Can a Missouri domestic violence victim end a lease without paying a fee? Not guaranteed. RSMo § 441.920 protects a victim from eviction and discrimination, and gives a rent-liability defense after vacating. But it explicitly allows the landlord to charge a reasonable fee for ending the lease early.