Rent payment question

[planner15]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey

I paid my rent on the first of April. After submitting it in person, I realized I had gotten confused about the month and had written "May rent" on both the envelope and the check itself. I emailed the landlord immediately to inform him of this (on April 1st).

On April 7th I received an email stating that the check had been post scripted 5/1/2014 and that I should submit a new check. I did so immediately. Now my landlord is demanding late fees for the check being 7 days late. Do I have to pay these?

I feel I shouldn't be penalized for the 7 days that it took the landlord to inform me of the issue. My thought process is that if this policy is legal, then there is nothing to stop the landlord from sitting around for 30 or so days before informing me of the issue and then demanding 30 days worth of late fees (or 364 days if I had written the wrong year). Thoughts?

 

[FarmerJ]

You could send to your LL a certified letter and keep a copy for your self & staple to your certified receipt and in the letter that their logic in not cashing the check is flawed and the only thing that matters is the dollar amount since banks do not honor post dates there is no logical reason for them to not have deposited the check , ( In the early 80s I found a canceled check returned to me in my statement lol back when they did that for free you know, and I had not even signed it, I had forgot to and the bank still ran it through which is when I was told banks proof operators many times did not read more than the dollar amount when processing a check ) then in your letter ask your LL in the very end if they would like to test their idea that postdated checks cant be cashed once they are signed and that you suggest it might be interesting to see the outcome of it in front of a judge in the very tenant friendly state of NJ if they try to get it from you later. { think about it, one can pay by check number , your routing numbers and there is nothing on paper so why would postdating matter to a bank , it does not , the only time a date really that matters is when a bank has a policy of not cashing a check after a certain date as in too old which one bank I was with years ago did , they had a 12 month policy and even then they did a funds hold when a check was more than 6 months old }