# Mailed or mailing date

> Mailed or mailing date means the date a document is postmarked or hand delivered.

**Term:** Mailed or mailing date  
**Last updated:** 2026-07-29

## Definition

## What Mailed or mailing date Means in a Contract

The mailed or mailing date is the reference point a contract uses to establish when a document was sent, as distinct from when it was received. In most agreements, this date is either the postmark stamped by a postal carrier or, where a document is hand delivered, the actual date of delivery confirmed by a receipt or acknowledgment. The concept matters because many contractual rights and obligations, such as termination notices, renewal elections, or payment demands, are measured from the moment a document leaves the sender rather than when it arrives.

Parties rely on the mailing date rather than the receipt date because sending is an act within the sender's control, while receipt depends on postal service performance and the recipient's own diligence in checking mail. Defining the mailing date protects the sender from being penalized for delays outside its control, while still giving the recipient a predictable, verifiable trigger point for counting response periods.

This term appears most often in notice provisions, but its underlying logic, that a specific, documentable act starts a clock, echoes throughout many other timing-sensitive contract clauses.

## How Mailed or mailing date Is Defined or Measured

Most contracts measure the mailing date by reference to an objective, third-party record. For traditional post, that is the postmark applied by the postal service, which is generally accepted as reliable evidence of the date an item entered the mail system. For hand delivery, the mailing date is usually the date noted on a signed delivery receipt, courier tracking record, or witnessed handover.

Some agreements extend the definition to cover overnight courier services, in which case the mailing date becomes the date the courier company accepts the package, as shown on its tracking documentation. Contracts increasingly also address electronic delivery methods such as email or portal notifications, though when they do, the clause is usually relabeled as a.

## Context

### Relevant circumstances

- Employee-employer communication
- Sending rent payments or notices
- Sharing of sensitive business information
- Acquisition or sale of goods and services

### Relevant sectors

- Real Estate
- Retail
- Information Technology
- Healthcare

## Relevant contract types

- [Employment Contract](https://www.genieai.co/en-us/template-type/employment-contract)
- [Lease Agreement](https://www.genieai.co/en-us/template-type/lease-agreement)
- [Partnership Agreement](https://www.genieai.co/en-us/template-type/partnership-agreement)

---

This is the Markdown representation of [https://www.genieai.co/en-us/define/mailed-or-mailing-date](https://www.genieai.co/en-us/define/mailed-or-mailing-date), provided for AI agents and crawlers. The HTML page is canonical. See [/llms.txt](https://www.genieai.co/llms.txt) for the full content map.