Late Fees, early rent check cashing

My landlord requires that rent be submitted on the 1st of every month or I am charged 100$ late fee. Because I work days, I have to mail my rent check to avoid having to miss work to drop off the check during the management company's office hours on the 1st of the month. The landlord has started cashing my checks as soon as they are delivered in the mail, even though I have asked that they not be cashed until the 1st of the month. Because of the early cashing, my checking account has been overdrawn resulting in overdraft fees. My questions are:
1) can the landlord really charge a late fee if the check is not delivered on the 1st of the month, and 2) are they allowed to cash the check before the day the rent is due

Thanks,

Answers: Yes (to an extent), and yes.

The LL is free to require that rent be paid on time. Your work schedule is not his concern. It is yours. Your bills are your concern. You have to make whatever arrangements are required to see that your bills are paid on time. The utility companies charge late fees, so does a LL. Now how much a LL can charge in late fees and when he can charge them is dependent on state law. You did not mention your state. Please list it. That determines when a late fee can be charged and how much of a late fee can be charged. Some states have mandatory grace periods where you have a few days extra to avoid the late fees (although the rent IS still late - he can't charge the fee until that grace period is over). Some states have no grace periods. He can charge the late fee as soon as any state mandated or lease clause mandated grace period is over. If no grace period, he can charge you on the 2nd.

The amount of fees varies too. Some states limit the amount of late fees, others do not. It is a general rule though that late fees should not exceed 10% of the rent, although it is not a law. You would have to challenge any late fee above that in court as excessive.

Once a check is written, it is available for deposit. To write a check when the funds are not available in the bank is to write a bad check. You cannot postdate a check - banks don't care what date is written on that check. Once you write it and submit it, you have paid the rent. If the check did not go through and the LL suffered a NSF (non-sufficient fund) fee, you would be responsible for that. To avoid overdraft fees, don't write a check when funds are not available.

The State is California, thanks!

In CA, late fees must closely approximate the LL's real losses. The late fee must be listed in the lease. It should say something in the lease like, "Because LL & tenant agree that actual damages for late rent payments are very difficult or impossible to determine, LL & Tenant agree to the following stated late charge as liquidated damages." Is there a clause like this in the lease that lists late fees as liquidated damages?

There is no grace period in CA law. Is there one in your lease? If not, the late fee is due on the 2nd with the rent. As I said earlier, late fees should not exceed 10% of the rent.

Yes, the landlord, if stated in the lease, can charge a late fee for any days late, even if only one.

Also, it is not your place to tell the landlord when to cash your check. The second you make out a check, you are guaranteeing the money is in your account to cover it. He has every right to cash it immediately and it's silly to fault him for doing so.

Perhaps paying a few days early to ensure the check arrives on time and budgeting your money to ensure funds availability would be more prudent than blaming the landlord for doing his job? What a person's job requires is of no concern to the landlord. You, as a tenant agreed to abide by the lease rules when you signed it and moved in.

Yes, he's allowed to cash the check before the rent is due, as you once you've made out the check, it's available for depositing. If it is not, you have committed check fraud and could be prosecuted. That is called writing a bad check that you know you don't have the funds to cover.