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Free Missouri Security Deposit Itemization (Auto-Calc PDF)

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Thirty days, itemized, twice the penalty if you get it wrong — the written itemized list of damages a Missouri landlord must furnish under Mo. Rev. Stat. §535.300 when any part of the deposit is kept. It adds up your deductions, subtracts them from the deposit, and writes the refund or balance straight into the PDF.

Mo. Rev. Stat. §535.300 30-Day Deadline Auto-Calc Refund Free PDF

A Missouri security deposit itemization is the written itemized list of damages that Mo. Rev. Stat. §535.300(3) requires a landlord to furnish whenever any part of the deposit is withheld. Within thirty days after the tenancy terminates, a Missouri landlord must either return the full deposit or hand the tenant this line-by-line accounting together with the balance. Missouri caps the deposit at two months’ rent, gives the tenant the right to be present at the move-out inspection, and lets a wronged tenant recover twice the amount wrongfully withheld. The generator below does the arithmetic: enter the deposit and each deduction, and it totals them, subtracts, and prints a ready-to-sign statement. Confirm the current statute text at the Missouri Revisor of Statutes before you send it, and pair it with the Missouri return letter that transmits it.

The itemization is one equation wrapped in a legal deadline. You begin with the original security deposit the tenant paid — which in Missouri may not have exceeded two months’ rent when it was collected under Mo. Rev. Stat. §535.300(1). From that figure you subtract every lawful deduction, each listed on its own line with a description and a dollar amount. What remains is the refund you enclose. If the deductions add up to more than the deposit, the equation goes negative and the statement instead shows the balance the tenant owes you. This document is the heart of Missouri deposit compliance: subsection 3 does not merely say “explain yourself,” it requires a written itemized list of the damages for which the deposit is withheld.

What makes Missouri distinctive is the thirty-day clock in subsection 3 paired with the inspection right in subsection 5. The landlord must furnish the itemized list or the full refund within thirty days of the tenancy’s termination, and before withholding anything the landlord must give the tenant reasonable written notice of the inspection so the tenant can be present. Miss either step and a withheld amount can become wrongful, exposing the landlord to twice that amount. The generator on this page handles the money side flawlessly: it sums the deduction lines as you type, subtracts, and prints matching numbers into the PDF, so the arithmetic on the page and on the statement never disagree.

Fill in the parties, the deposit, and one line for each deduction. As you type, the calculator at the bottom updates in real time; when you click generate, the same totals are written into a formatted Missouri itemized statement you can print, sign, and mail. Every field below reaches the document, and the refund or balance is computed for you under Mo. Rev. Stat. §535.300. If you also want a cover letter to transmit it, use the companion Missouri deposit return letter form.

Missouri’s entire security deposit framework lives in a single statute, Mo. Rev. Stat. §535.300, and every landlord who holds a residential deposit is bound by it. The section opens in subsection 1 by capping the deposit a landlord may demand or receive at two months’ rent. Subsection 2 addresses how the money is held: the deposit is kept for the tenant, and any interest earned on it is the property of the landlord. The operative deadline sits in subsection 3: within thirty days after the tenancy terminates, the landlord must either return the full deposit or furnish the tenant a written itemized list of the damages withheld, along with the balance of the deposit. That written itemized list is precisely the document this page generates.

Subsection 4 is the deduction list, and it is narrow by design. A Missouri landlord may withhold from the deposit only for a limited set of reasons: to remedy the tenant’s default in the payment of rent; to restore the dwelling unit to its condition at the commencement of the tenancy, with ordinary wear and tear expressly excepted; and to compensate the landlord for actual damages sustained because the tenant failed to give adequate notice of termination. Anything outside those categories — and any charge for ordinary wear — is not a permitted deduction. Subsection 5 adds the inspection right: 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. Subsection 6 supplies the teeth: a landlord who wrongfully withholds all or any portion of the deposit is liable to the tenant for twice the amount wrongfully withheld.

Missouri landlords often blur two documents that the statute treats differently. The itemization is the statutory instrument named in subsection 3: the written itemized list of the damages for which the deposit is withheld. It is the accounting — each deduction on its own line with a description and a dollar figure, the deposit at the top, and the refund or balance at the bottom. A return letter, by contrast, is the cover correspondence that transmits the accounting: the salutation, the paragraph explaining what is enclosed, the signature. The statute mandates the first; the second is a courtesy that carries it.

In practice a landlord usually sends both, stapled together, which is why the two are easy to conflate. But they are not interchangeable. A “Dear Tenant” letter with a lump-sum figure and no line items does not satisfy subsection 3, because the statute demands the itemized list, not a summary. Conversely, a bare spreadsheet of deductions with no cover note still satisfies the itemization requirement, though most landlords prefer to add a short transmittal for clarity. This page builds the itemization itself — the document the statute actually requires — and you can pair it with the companion deposit refund cover letter when you want a formal cover page. Keeping them as two separate forms mirrors how a Missouri judge will read your file: the itemized list is the compliance record; the letter is the envelope.

The line between a lawful Missouri deduction and an unlawful one is the difference between damage and ordinary wear and tear. Subsection 4 authorizes only the cost of restoring the unit to its move-in condition, wear excepted — not upgrades, not routine turnover cleaning, and not the aging that happens even when a tenant is careful. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development describes ordinary wear and tear as the deterioration that results from the intended, ordinary use of a dwelling; damage, by contrast, is harm from negligence, carelessness, accident, or abuse. Only the second category may appear on a Missouri itemization.

A useful test is to ask whether the condition came from living in the unit or from misusing it. Carpet flattened along the path from the door to the sofa is wear; the same carpet with a bleach stain is damage. Missouri courts, like courts elsewhere, also respect the depreciation idea behind HUD’s life-expectancy tables: if a carpet’s useful life is seven years and the tenant lived there five, the landlord cannot itemize a brand-new carpet, because most of that value was already used up by ordinary aging. When a line item is close to the wear-and-tear boundary, deduct conservatively and document thoroughly — an over-aggressive itemization is the fastest route to the subsection 6 penalty.

It helps to watch the equation run once with real numbers under Missouri law. Suppose a tenant paid a security deposit of fifteen hundred dollars — well within the two-month cap for a unit renting