Fighting the late fees...

I received a notice yesterday from our condo association stating that I haven't paid condo dues since July.  The late charge is $25 per condo per month, $100 total in late fees.  This happened one other time and I was able to prove that I had, in fact, paid the fees.  So I didn't panic.

I pay the condo fees through my banks bill pay service.  I thought the fees were do the 15th of the month but just found out they are do by the 10th.  The lady that handles the condo fees usually takes 3 or 4 weeks to cash the checks so when I noticed the money hadn't been deducted from our account yet, I didn't think anything of it.

According to the bank, they sent both of the checks when they were supposed to. So....

1. Called Condo Association and told them I had confirmation that the checks were sent.
2. Condo Association Lady stated she almost just picked up the phone and called us because we always paid on time and she thought something wasn't right that they hadn't received the checks yet.  (That would have been nice of her instead of sending me a late notice.)
3. Condo Lady confirmed she received Septembers payment but not Augusts.  And since it was never cashed that proves she didn't receive it.  (Even though she usually takes forever to cash them so how was I to know?)  Late fees are now down to $50 instead of $100.
4. Called bank.  They were very nice and said they would check into it but it could take up to 3 days.  Also, was told that if there are late fees they would cover them.  It's a benefit of using the bill pay service.  I told the bank guy, "That's great! Because I am being charged $50 in late fees."  We'll see how it works out.  I have a hard time believing the bank will actually cover the late fees.  Plus, I didn't have the bank send the money until the 11th and the notice from the condo association says they were due on the 10th.  So the bank could just say I paid them late anyways.  I always have sent the money by the 15th and never had anyone say anything to me about it being late before.
5. If the bank doesn't pay the late fees, I'm going to email her the confirmation from the bank that shows they did send the check.  Not sure if that will help or not.  Really, in 9 years that we lived here, we have never been late so you would think they would cut us some slack this one time.  Especially since I have confirmation the check was sent.  

I'll let you know how it goes.