Security Deposit Demand Letters
St. Louis, Missouri · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300

The St. Louis security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

Missouri law gave your St. Louis landlord 30 days to return it or itemize. If that clock has run, a St. Louis security deposit demand letter puts Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300 to work on your side.

Demand my deposit back
Writing it costs nothing. $20 covers printing, certified postage and the return receipt.
30
days to return or itemize
2×
potential damages on wrongful withholding
$20
letter + certified mail, one-time

Last updated September 2026 · local figures: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-year

St. Louis deposit math
Median rent in St. Louis$997/mo
Typical deposit ≈ one month≈$1,000
Statutory 2× on wrongful withholding$2,000
Landlord's potential exposure$2,000

Median gross rent: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year (table B25064). Deposit example rounded to one month's rent; statutory figures are ceilings, and courts decide actual awards.

What St. Louis renters should know

St. Louis deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in St. Louis are governed by Missouri state law: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300. Wrongful withholding can make the landlord liable for up to twice the amount wrongfully withheld. Full Missouri deadline & penalty guide →

The court that would hear it

Deposit claims from St. Louis are filed in the Small Claims Court (Circuit Court, associate division) serving its independent city, a court designed for people without lawyers, hearing claims up to $5,000. A typical St. Louis deposit, even at the statute's $2,000 cap, fits under that limit, which is exactly why a statute-citing certified letter usually settles it first.

What actually goes in the mail

Nothing is charged until you have read the letter that will be sent. After you sign it, we handle the printing, the postage and the trip to the Post Office, and you keep the certified tracking, the delivery record and a signed copy you can check against its own fingerprint.

The full walk-through, including what doing this yourself costs, is on how it works.

Have it mailed, not downloaded.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage, and the return receipt — and you read every word before you pay.
Read my St. Louis letter
On the last page of your letter

The bit that stops them arguing

Not a logo that says “verified.” A short record of how and when you signed, printed on the letter your St. Louis landlord is holding, plus a code made from the letter's own words.

  • The demand paragraph
  • The signature record
  • The SHA-256 hash
  • Certified Mail with Return Receipt
Pin 1 · The demand paragraphThe paragraph names your state's statute, the amount your landlord kept, the deadline they missed, and gives them a firm deadline to send the money before the letter says what happens next. Every part of it comes from the answers you gave, printed in the order the law expects.
Pin 2 · The signature recordMethod (drawn or typed), date, time zone, IP, browser, and consent to sign electronically. Printed on the letter itself, so the person receiving it can see how it was signed. Nothing goes out until a real person signs.
Pin 3 · The SHA-256 hashA 64-character code built from every word in your letter, recorded with the date and time you signed. It is your signing record: paste it into the checker at /verify/ and it confirms the wording you hold is the wording you signed, unchanged. It is not proof of delivery; the certified mail record below is.
Pin 4 · Certified Mail with Return ReceiptSomeone at the other end has to sign. This is the proof: the certified mail receipt, the USPS tracking history, and the delivery signature with its date. The Postal Service records them, our mail partner passes them to us, and we email them to you and post them on your letter tracker. Your landlord cannot claim the letter never came.

The closing words above are the real ones our engine writes for St. Louis letters, statute and deadline included. The name, signature and codes are made up; yours carry your own record. The time is shown in the signer's own time zone, not ours.

That code is built from every word in your letter. Change one word and it no longer matches. Type it into our checker and it tells you the letter is the same one you signed. See how a St. Louis letter checks out →

What a St. Louis deposit is usually worth

Put a number on it: gross rent in St. Louis sits near $997 a month (ACS 2024 5-year), so a one-month deposit is about what a renter here stands to lose. That tracks the Missouri median of $1,033 fairly closely, so what is typical here is what is typical statewide.

More renters than owners live in St. Louis: about 55% of households rent. In a majority-renter city, deposit disputes are not an edge case; they are a routine feature of the housing market, and local courts see them constantly. The rule that governs what happens to that money is set at the state level, by Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300, and it applies in St. Louis exactly as it does anywhere else in Missouri.

The reason landlords stall is not usually malice. It is arithmetic. Ignoring one email costs nothing; responding costs money. Everything changes when the renter creates a record that a court would find persuasive, because now doing nothing carries a price.

Leaving a St. Louis rental without losing the deposit

Here you are likely dealing with the owner directly. That can mean the dispute feels personal, and it also means one well-drafted letter reaches the person who actually decides, instead of disappearing into a support inbox.

  • Capture the condition on move-out day itself. Not before you packed, not after you handed the keys over. The day it changes hands, with the original files preserved.
  • Make the address handover provable. Email, text, certified mail, USPS change of address confirmation: any one of them, kept.
  • Read the lease for a notice address. It is usually specified, usually ignored, and occasionally the whole reason a demand never got answered.
  • Set yourself a date and keep it. 30 days after handover, if nothing has arrived, send the letter. Landlords who intend to pay have already paid by then.

Where a St. Louis renter would actually file

A landlord reading your letter is silently sizing up one thing: does this person actually know what happens next? It costs you five minutes to be someone who does.

Missouri routes deposit claims to the Small Claims Court (Circuit Court, associate division), with a limit of $5,000. For a rental in St. Louis, that normally means the court serving its independent city. Fees, forms and service rules are set locally rather than statewide, so check the court information for its independent city before filing.

The forum is deliberately informal, which favors the party who turns up organized. Bring the lease, the photographs with their original dates intact, proof of the address you gave them, and the certified mail receipt for your letter.

Read the whole letter first.Reading your St. Louis letter costs nothing. You decide after you have seen it.
Read my St. Louis letter

St. Louis renters, by the numbers

$997
median gross rent per month in St. Louis
55%
of St. Louis's ≈145,000 households rent their home
≈79,000
renter households on the same 30-day clock
$2,000
potential statutory exposure on a typical $1,000 deposit

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003 (St. Louis; Census place “St. Louis city”); Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300. Population ≈289,000.

St. Louis deposit questions

How long does a landlord in St. Louis have to return a security deposit?
30 days. The statute (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300) requires the landlord to act within 30 days after termination. Miss it, and the law's remedies open up: Wrongful withholding can make the landlord liable for up to twice the amount wrongfully withheld.
Can I sue my landlord in small claims court in St. Louis?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from St. Louis are filed in the Small Claims Court (Circuit Court, associate division) serving its independent city, a court designed for people without lawyers, hearing claims up to $5,000. A demand letter sent by certified mail is the documented first step judges expect to see.
Is a demand letter worth it for a typical St. Louis deposit?
Median rent in St. Louis is $997 a month (U.S. Census, ACS 2024 5-year), and deposits typically run about one month's rent. Call it $1,000. Missouri's statute puts up to $2,000 of exposure on a landlord who wrongfully withholds that deposit (a statutory ceiling; courts decide actual awards). The letter is $20 flat, certified mail included, and you read every word of it before paying.

General legal information, not legal advice. Court limits and city ordinances change; verify current rules or consult a licensed Missouri attorney.

Skip the trip to the Post Office.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage and the return receipt. No stamps, no green card to fill in wrong, no queue.
Read my St. Louis letter
St. Louis · Renter guides

What to settle before you write to them

Nothing in St. Louis changes what Missouri law says. It does change who you are dealing with, which makes knowing the answers below more useful, not less.

Deductions What they are allowed to take out Missouri makes the landlord put their deductions in writing. That list is the whole argument, and most of them do not survive being read closely. Read the guide → Wear and tear The line landlords blur most often Landlords lean on the ambiguity because renters rarely push back on it. In practice the line is clearer than it looks once you have seen where it falls, item by item. See the line → Evidence Document the place before you unpack Move-in documentation is the cheapest insurance in renting and the one renters skip. It costs an hour and settles arguments you have not had yet. Get the checklist → No response Your landlord has gone quiet Most renters read a missed deadline as their own failure. It is the landlord's obligation that lapsed, not your right. What to do →

For one charge in particular:

Cleaning chargesCharged for paintNew carpetPicture hooksA pet damage bill

Faster route: hand the entire statement to the deduction checker and see which St. Louis charges hold up.

St. Louis · Keep reading

The rest of what is here

Everything below is free and none of it needs an account.

Other Missouri cities

Deposit law is the same across Missouri. Rent, venue and local rules are not, so each of these has its own page.

Not renting in St. Louis any more? We send the security deposit demand letter service St. Louis, Missouri renters use in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each built on that state's own statute.

St. Louis · Free help

Where to get help near St. Louis

If you would rather talk to someone than read a statute, start here. These Missouri organizations take renter questions for free, and the court listed is the one that would hear a St. Louis deposit claim.

Government and nonprofit resources, listed because they are useful. We are not affiliated with any of them, and none of them is affiliated with us. Every link here was checked on August 30, 2026.

Send the letter your St. Louis landlord can't ignore.

Send it certified mail