Rental Application and Tenant-Screening Fee Requirements in Missouri

At a glance

Missouri's statewide baseline

Missouri has no special statewide statute setting a flat-dollar, actual-cost, customary-cost, or indexed ceiling for an ordinary residential rental- application or tenant-screening fee. The current landlord-tenant and real- estate licensing schemes also do not prescribe when such a fee may be charged, what costs it may cover, or what application-fee disclosures, receipts, refunds, or report copies must follow.

This conclusion comes from the current official chapter structure and targeted section text, not from a national fee chart. Chapters 441, 534, and 535 govern landlord-tenant relations, possession, rent, and security deposits. Chapter 339 governs real-estate brokers and people handling lease applications for owners or brokers. None supplies an ordinary residential application-fee process.

Coverage and the security-deposit boundary

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 441.005(1)-(3), (6) defines a landlord as the owner, lessor, or a person authorized to manage the premises, and defines a lease as a written or oral agreement for the premises' use or possession. Broker licensing under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 339.010.1, .9(5) reaches compensated rental and leasing activity and expressly recognizes employees who deliver or receive lease applications and related payments for an owner or broker.

An application fee should not be confused with the separate security-deposit regime. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300.8 defines a security deposit as money or property furnished by a tenant to secure performance of the rental agreement. That deposit is capped at two months' rent and has its own return, itemization, and damages rules. Those rules do not create an application-fee cap merely because both payments may occur near the start of a rental relationship.

No special application-fee process

The audited statutes state no special statewide requirement to:

• limit an application or screening charge to a dollar amount or actual cost;
• wait until a unit is available or an application is actually considered;
• disclose the fee in a listing or provide written screening criteria;
• identify the consumer-reporting agency or state dispute rights;
• give an application-fee receipt or a copy of a screening report;
• refund an unused, excess, duplicate, unconsidered, or denial-based fee;
• accept an applicant-supplied or reusable screening report; or
• process applications in order or issue a Missouri application-denial notice.

Separate federal consumer-reporting law may require adverse-action disclosures when a consumer report contributes to denial or less favorable terms. That is not a Missouri application-fee procedure.

Local-law boundary

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 441.043.2 prevents cities and counties from restricting a landlord's use or request of listed screening information—including credit scores, credit reports, eviction history, and criminal history—and from setting a lower security-deposit ceiling. The section does not name rental-application fees. It should not be stretched into an application-fee-specific preemption claim or into permission for any particular local fee rule.

A proposed $15 cap did not pass

Missouri HB 2856 in 2026 would have limited a rental-application fee to $15 and the landlord's processing costs, required return of unused amounts through a good-faith effort within 20 calendar days, and required an electronic receipt unless the applicant requested paper. The bill received only first and second readings and did not pass before the regular session ended. It did not change current law.

Common questions

Does Missouri cap the application fee at the cost of a background check? No special statewide statute in the audited chapters imposes that formula.

Must the landlord refund the fee after denial? The audited Missouri statutes create no denial-based application-fee refund right.

Must the landlord accept a recent report I already bought? No applicant- supplied or reusable-report procedure appears in the audited statutes.

Does the two-month security-deposit cap apply? Only if the payment is a security deposit within Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300.8, not merely because it is collected before move-in.

Statutes and sources

• Mo. Rev. Stat. § 441.005 — landlord, lease, lessee, premises, rent, and tenant definitions.

  “Landlord”, the owner or lessor of the premises or a person authorized by the owner to exercise any aspect of the management of the premises.

Official source: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=441.005 (accessed 2026-08-16) - Mo. Rev. Stat. § 535.300.1, .8 — two-month security-deposit cap and definition.

“Security deposit” means any deposit of money or property ... furnished by a tenant to a landlord to secure the performance of any part of the rental agreement.

Official source: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=535.300 (accessed 2026-08-16) - Mo. Rev. Stat. § 441.043.2 — local screening and security-deposit restrictions.

No county or city ... shall enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance or resolution that ... restricts a landlord's ability to use or consider ... credit scores [or] credit reports ...

Official source: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=441.043 (accessed 2026-08-16) - Mo. Rev. Stat. § 339.010 — rental brokers and limited lease-application handling by property-management personnel.

Official source: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=339.010 (accessed 2026-08-16)