Late condo fee's

Seems like something easily resolved with a quick phone call, email, or discussion with your Management Co . . .

Unless you're repeatedly late, just promise to drop the check in the mail and request they remove the late fee as a one-time courtesy.

Some have asked if it was sent by mail or electronically - and there is a difference. It sounds like you have a service where you contact the bank so it can make the payment and it sends out a check. That's what my bank does if the vendor doesn't have electronic banking capabilities (which is VERY rare these days) and the money gets there the same day or the next.

Our association's policy is payment's due on the first of the month, but is considered late if not received by our property manager by close of business on the 15th of the month, REGARDLESS of how it's paid. We also tell people that if their checks are being mailed (by the bank or themselves), they need to allow 5-7 business days for it to arrive on time.

That may be what caused you to be assessed a late fee, so you have a few more questions to ask your bank on how the payment works and then go back to the property manager and ask precisely when the check arrived. It's possible that it got misplaced, in which case you shouldn't have to pay the late fee. However, if it arrived even a day after the due date, you're on the hook for the late fee. Next time, plan accordingly or ask your property manager about electronic payments - perhaps automatic deductions every month would work better for you (although I personally prefer to dictate what goes out and to whom!)

All of this said, if you were in my community and I were still on the board, I might suggest that we waive the late fee if you've had a good payment history up to this point.

I suspect that Jack is using his Banks bill pay service.
A Bill pay service will transfer funds electronically if the recipient is set up for that.
Otherwise, the bank will write a check on the clients behalf and place it in the mail.

It should be noted that the account holder specifies what date the bill pay should be sent or (in the case of some banks) received by. With this date being completely controlled by the account holder, I, as treasurer, would waive the first late charge but not repeated late charges.

I also encouraged members of our Association to allow for mail delays and have the bank issue the check at least 10 days earlier then the receive by date. For those that followed that advice, the issue didn't repeat.

Jack,

I agree with the advice provided by others:

Contact your bank for proof when the check was issued.
Provide this proof along with a new check to your management company.
Ask that they remove the late charge as a courtesy.

I thought this, too, but apparently (some) banks will generate an actual paper check and mail it under certain circumstances. The only way I could ever arrange electronic payments out of my checking account was to find the payee on the bank's list of pre-determined payees. If I needed to send a payment to someone not on that list, doing it electronically wasn't an option.

This is news to me.