You’ll Get Your Deposit Back (or not) Within 30 Days

Posted on June 30, 2009
Filed Under Daily Grind Day Job, Dizmang Properties, Real Estate & Property Management | Leave a Comment

I’m sure you’ve heard me whining about our extreme high vacancy rate in our rental properties.  Although the market does seem to have picked up and we are renting property again and things are getting back to the norm.  We have one street that has 28 houses and 13 of them went vacant June 1st.  It is street that is very popular with college students, so it is not uncommon or surprising to have this many on this one street.  However, college students + Missouri Street = parties.  And lots of them.  And when you have lots of parties, you get lots of damages oftentimes exceeding your security deposit. <insert condescending tone here>

But this post isn’t about college students, parties or damages. It is a quick overview outline on what the State of Missouri law says regarding the return of your security deposit.  You can download the Attorney General’s booklet regarding Landlord/Tenant Law in PDF version for Missouri.  It seems like I get tons of questions about this kind of stuff during this time of year.

  1. The landlord has 30 days from the date of move out to do a final walk thru of your property and return the security deposit minus any damages with an itemized list of said damages.
  2. The landlord must offer the tenant an opportunity to be present during the final walk thru.  It is not required that the tenant be present.  Also, if the tenant cannot be present during the walk thru, the landlord does not have to reschedule.  Now on a side note, Dizmang Properties, tries to accommodate our tenants and set a time that works for them.  We want you to be there.
  3. The security deposit cannot be used as the last month’s rent payment.  This sounds tricky, but it’s not.  Basically, security deposit is for damages then rent.
  4. The security deposit check will be written to all tenants named on the lease agreement.

Those are the basics, make sure you read the Landlord/Tenant law for more.  Yes, I misspell “walk thru” and I know it should really be walk through. :)

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