[TallGuyShort]

How does one prove they wrote and satisfied the requirements within 30 days? I actually currently have a situation where my HOA claims I have violated covenants, but there's an architectural review committee one can write to for exceptions, and the covenants state that if no response is received within 100 days the exception is automatically approved. However the committee members have a habit of cancelling public meetings, ignoring emails, and their other employers are very good at deflecting attempts to contact them on committee business. I'm at their mercy to prove that I qualify for an exception. Same problem. In hindsight, best I could have done is prove I sent some mail to the right address on a certain date. That's it.

[derobert]

That's basically what you do—you send the correspondence via certified mail, and keep the certified mail receipt. That doesn't prove what you mailed, but it gives verification that you sent something. (You purchased something from Equifax on the 1st, sent them a certified letter on the 10th. You claim it was the arbitration opt-out; they had better have some evidence it wasn't, or the judge/jury is probably going to believe you.)

Honestly for this (the Equifax thing), you just keep record of when you sent it—it's only an issue if you litigate, and then I'd expect your record of when you sent it + your testimony would be sufficient. But IANAL, and you should of course talk to one if it matters.

For your HOA, hopefully you have some record of when you sent the request (e.g., you kept a copy of the ARC application with a note that you mailed it on $DATE). (Of course, the HOA should be maintaining records of when applications are received.) Depending on what it is, this is something that may be worth paying for legal advice on.

[imroot]

CertifiedMailLabels.com is what I use -- They send it certified mail, keep a copy of the letter (so there is no disputing what the contents of the letter are) and give you effectively indisputable proof of delivery -- they give you a proof of mailing that they sent the letter that is in .pdf form, and then they provide a .pdf receipt that is your return mail copy.

I've had to use it in the past for creditors who don't have a clue.

[drspacemonkey]

I had a similar issue with my bank dealing with an identity theft problem I had a while back.

Ultimately, I had to resort to sending them letters via certified mail.