Yes, you may decline to honor checks that are more than nine months old. Under the Uniform Commercial Code “a bank is under no obligation to a customer having a checking account to pay a check, other than a certified check, which is presented more than 6 months after its date, but it may charge its customer’s account for a payment made thereafter in good faith.”

The UCC Comments clarify that “the time limit is set at six months because banking and commercial practice regards a check outstanding for longer than that period as stale, and a bank will normally not pay such a check without consulting the depositor. It is therefore not required to do so, but is given the option to pay because it may be in a position to know, as in the case of dividend checks, that the drawer wants payment made.”

In this case, you know that your customer (the drawer) does not want payment made on checks presented more than nine months after their date. Consequently, you have the discretion — and perhaps the obligation — to decline to honor such checks.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

• UCC, 810 ILCS 5/4-404 (“A bank is under no obligation to a customer having a checking account to pay a check, other than a certified check, which is presented more than 6 months after its date, but it may charge its customer’s account for a payment made thereafter in good faith.”)

• UCC Comment 1, § 4-404 (“The time limit is set at six months because banking and commercial practice regards a check outstanding for longer than that period as stale, and a bank will normally not pay such a check without consulting the depositor. It is therefore not required to do so, but is given the option to pay because it may be in a position to know, as in the case of dividend checks, that the drawer wants payment made. . . .”)