Webster County, Missouri Eviction Risk: Low

Webster County, Missouri eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 3.5/10 (Low) across its 6 incorporated cities, with individual city scores ranging from 3.1 to 4. That Low county average tells only part of the story: Missouri eviction laws as a whole leans landlord-friendly at the statutory level, but Webster County sits at rank 27 of 115 Missouri counties, meaning 26 counties are riskier and 88 are less risky, placing it in the higher-risk third of the state. For landlords, the county's average rent of $792 and a rent-burden rate of 23.2% suggest tenant finances are reasonably stable on average, though a poverty rate of 18.9% means a meaningful share of renters are operating with thin margins.

Renter participation is moderate: 38.4% of occupied housing is renter-occupied. That share, combined with the modest rents, makes Webster County accessible for entry-level investors, but operating conditions vary considerably from one city to the next, and portfolio decisions made at the county level can miss important local signals.

The cities inside Webster County

Niangua is the highest-risk city in the county, scoring 4/10 with a population of 4,908, making it both the second-largest city and the one where landlords face the greatest concentration of tenant-side risk factors. Fordland follows at 3.5/10 (population 594), punching above its size in terms of risk relative to the county average.

On the other end of the spectrum, Diggins scores 3.1/10, the lowest in the county, while Seymour comes in at 3.6/10 (population 2,179). Marshfield, the county seat and largest city at 7,696 residents, sits at a mid-range 3.4/10. These spreads confirm that risk is genuinely hyper-local: a landlord operating in Rogersville faces conditions materially different from one holding units in Marshfield or Diggins just a few miles away.

State-level laws that apply here

All Webster County landlords operate under Missouri state law, principally RSMo § 441 (Landlord and Tenant). For nonpayment of rent, Missouri allows a rent-and-possession action with no prior written notice required under RSMo § 535.010. A material lease violation triggers a 10-day notice under RSMo § 441.060, and ending a month-to-month tenancy requires 30 days notice under the same statute. The Missouri eviction process, from filing to lockout, typically runs 21 to 45 days for uncontested cases and 45 to 120 days for contested matters.

Total out-of-pocket costs for a single eviction action can span a wide range. Court filing fees run $70 to $180, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $150, and attorney fees, if you retain counsel, run $500 to $3,000. Reviewing Missouri eviction costs carefully before budgeting a new acquisition is worth the time. On the regulatory side, Missouri has no just-cause eviction requirement and the state preempts local rent control ordinances, so no city in Webster County can impose rent caps independently. Missouri tenant protections are governed at the state level, leaving local landlords with a consistent, predictable legal framework county-wide.

With a poverty rate of 18.9% and 38.4% of households renting, Webster County carries real tenant-side financial pressure despite its Low aggregate score; the city-by-city grid above shows where that pressure concentrates most.