Section 10 Withholding From the Security Deposit

• Library: Real Estate Leasing and Landlord-Tenant Actions and Remedies 2011

Most often in dispute, from this author’s experience, is the reasonableness of the amount the landlord withholds from the security deposit. The landlord may withhold from the security deposit only those amounts that are “reasonably necessary” to:

· remedy the tenant’s default in the payment of rent—the tenant, however, may not use the deposit in lieu of the payment of rent, § 535.300.6, RSMo 2000;

·

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restore the unit to its condition at the commencement of the tenancy, ordinary wear and tear excepted; or

· compensate the landlord for actual damages resulting from the tenant’s failure to give adequate notice to terminate (and only after the landlord’s reasonable efforts to mitigate).

See § 535.300.3.

The landlord is liable to a tenant under the security...