Missouri packs its deposit rules into one statute — §535.300 — with a clean cap, a standard clock, and an inspection right with real procedural teeth that most Missouri tenants never invoke.
How much can a landlord charge?
Two months' rent, maximum. Deposits must be held in trust — a bank, credit union, or depository institution account separate from the landlord's own funds.
The inspection right — with required notice
Before assessing damage, the landlord must give the tenant reasonable written notice of the date and time of the move-out inspection, which must occur at a reasonable time — and the tenant has the right to be present. This isn't a courtesy; it's statutory procedure. Attend it: damage assessed at an inspection you watched is hard to dispute later, and damage invented afterward is hard to defend when you were there.
The 30-day return
Within 30 days of termination, the landlord returns the deposit or provides a written itemized list of the damages for which it's withheld. Lawful deductions: unpaid rent, damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, and rent lost from an early, unlawful move-out (which the landlord must mitigate by attempting to re-rent).
The penalty
Wrongful withholding makes the landlord liable for up to twice the amount wrongfully withheld. Small claims court handles most of these; the doubled recovery makes even modest deposits worth pursuing.
Why Missouri deposit disputes are documentation disputes
Missouri built the joint inspection into law precisely because condition disputes are evidence disputes — but an inspection is one afternoon at the end of a multi-year tenancy, and memory of move-in condition is the weakest evidence there is. The party holding a day-one record walks into that inspection already having won it.
SealMove is the day-one record, sealed. Every photo and video is cryptographically locked the instant it's captured, independently timestamped, and archived tamper-evident with Face ID. At move-out, your walkthrough lines up room-by-room against the sealed baseline — bring it to the statutory inspection — and either party can send the other a report to review and acknowledge, no app required.