Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You are just plain wrong. You must mail your payment with time for it to arrive by the due date. Post mark is irrelevant for everything but your tax return. What keeps them from holding payments and not posting them is that it would be a crime, and banks only make money by ripping you off legally. I would also recommend you re-check your facts about your due date. I would bet your loan is due the first, and you have until the 16th as a grace period. So if you sit on your payment for over two weeks past when it is due and then complain when you get hit with a late fee because it does not arrive before the expiration of the grace period, you have no one to blame but yourself.

I think Mr. McCormick is right on this one. I suggest you reread your loan paperwork carefully. If it states it is due on a date, and you have a grace period until a certain date, you are mailing it late during the grace period.

700 late charges? At one a month, that would take over 58 years!

In addition to the preceding comments, I would add that there is a so-called "mail box rule" in the law of contracts that holds that certain acts are deemed complete on the day of mailing, or more precisely, at the time of mailing. These include acceptance of an offer where acceptance by mail is invited by the offer, and, usually, service of legal papers on someone who is already a party to a lawsuit. There are probably other examples.

However, with payment of bills, the contract between the parties will almost always say that the payment must be physically received by the due date (or within the grace period). It's the contract that governs when a late charge may be imposed.