Renters Rights and Obligations
Landlords Rights and Obligations

General Obligations and Rights of Tenants

Tenants should:

• Pay rent on time.
• Use reasonable care and not damage property.
• Properly dispose of garbage.
• Refrain from taking on additional occupants or subleasing without the landlord's written permission
• Provide the notice required by your Lease. One month's notice means a full calendar month, and must include a full rental period. For example: If your rent is due on the third day of the month, your rental period runs from the third of the month to the third of the following month.
• The tenant may not use the security deposit to pay the last month's rent.
• Remember to give the landlord your forwarding address in writing. Otherwise, he may not be able to send your deposit.
• Tenants should pay for damages resulting from their own negligence or the negligence of a guest. 
• If repairs are needed, ask the landlord to make repairs within a reasonable period of time.
• If repairs are not made within a reasonable period of time, make a written request for the necessary repairs and keep a copy of the letter.
• If the repairs still are not made, the tenant may seek legal assistance
• If a tenant withholds rent payments until repairs are completed, the renter may be in violation of the lease and may be subject to eviction.

General Obligations and Rights of Landlords

Landlords should:

• Make property habitable before tenants move in.
• Make and pay for repairs due to ordinary wear and tear.
• Refrain from turning off a tenant's water, electricity or gas.
• Provide written notice to tenants when ownership of the property is transferred to a new landlord.
• Not unlawfully discriminate.
• Be responsible for repairs caused by ordinary wear and tear and natural forces such as the weather.

A landlord can end a lease:

• When a tenant doesn't pay rent.
• At the end of a written lease.
• When a tenant damages property.
• When a tenant violates a condition of a written lease.
• When a tenant is involved in criminal activity.

If the landlord has wrongfully withheld all or part of a deposit, the tenant may sue to recover up to twice the amount wrongfully withheld.
The landlord may keep all or part of a deposit to pay for:

• actual damages (not for normal wear and tear)
• unpaid rent
• lost rent due to the tenant moving out without adequate notice

For Consumers Rights pulications from the Missouri Attorney General's Office, including more information on Landlord-Tenant Laws, go to the following address:
http://ago.mo.gov/publications/publications.htm

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