New Mexico Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

NMSA 1978 § 47-8-33(D) requires a three-day written notice before the owner may file a petition for restitution, and it bars the action entirely if the resident tenders the full amount due, in the manner stated in the notice, before the three days run. The three days are calendar days from delivery, and § 47-8-33(H) pushes the last day forward if it lands on a weekend or federal holiday. Use the Supreme Court's Rule 4-901 form: it requires the itemized amount, a total, the payment methods you will accept, and a completed service block. Section 47-8-13(D) makes nonpayment the one notice type where hand delivery, first-class mailing, or posting on an exterior door each work on their own.

For material noncompliance, § 47-8-33(A) requires a written notice describing the acts and omissions with dates and specific facts and stating that the agreement terminates on a date not less than seven days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in seven days. Two traps sit in § 47-8-33(C): that initial notice must be given within thirty days of the breach or of your learning about it, and it must itself warn that the agreement terminates on a second material noncompliance within six months. If a second breach follows within six months, § 47-8-33(B) allows a seven-day notice that terminates outright with no cure right. A substantial violation from the closed list in § 47-8-3(T), such as a felony-level drug offense, deadly weapon use, or intentional property damage over $1,000, gets a three-day unconditional notice.

Section 47-8-37(B) requires at least thirty days' written notice given before the periodic rental date specified in the notice, which is not the same as thirty days from today. On a tenancy with rent due the first, a notice served August 5 cannot end the tenancy September 4 or even September 1, because that is only twenty-seven days out; it ends October 1. Week-to-week takes seven days' notice to the termination date. New Mexico has no just-cause requirement and no longer period for long-tenured or older residents, but § 47-8-39 retaliation and fair housing remain defenses.

A Petition by Owner for Restitution is filed in the magistrate court for the county where the property sits, or in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court in Albuquerque, with the lease and every notice attached as exhibits. The Metropolitan Court's self-help pamphlet lists the petition fee at $77, but the statutory magistrate cost schedule was amended effective July 1, 2024, so confirm the current amount with your clerk. Sheriff or process server fees are charged separately.

There is no separate answer deadline for the possession claim: under § 47-8-43(A)(1) trial is set not less than seven nor more than ten days after service, and the resident answers by the deadline in the summons or by the trial date, whichever is earlier. The resident must appear to defend, and the court may continue the hearing up to seven days for good cause.

Uncontested nonpayment usually runs about three to five weeks: the three-day notice, filing, service at least seven days before a trial set seven to ten days out, then a judgment at which the judge sets an eviction date three to seven days away under § 47-8-46(A). If the resident does not leave by that date you must request the writ of restitution and hand-carry it to the sheriff. A thirty-day month-to-month case runs six to twelve weeks once the periodic-rental-date alignment is counted, and a good-cause continuance adds up to seven days.

NMSA 1978 § 47-8-36 bars an owner from knowingly excluding or dispossessing a resident without a court order by fraud, by plugging, changing, adding, or removing a lock, by blocking an entrance, by interfering with utilities, by removing the resident's property, or by any willful act making the unit or the property inaccessible. Only the sheriff, acting on a writ of restitution, may carry out an eviction. The remedies stack: one hundred percent rent abatement for each day the resident is denied possession or a service, even for part of a day; a civil penalty of two times the monthly rent under § 47-8-48; restitution of the premises or termination of the agreement at the resident's choice; actual damages; and attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing party. The resident's petition is heard three to five days after service and can put them back in within twenty-four hours.

Laws 2025, ch. 122 (SB 267), effective June 20, 2025, amended the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act on applicant screening and disclosures, capping tenant screening fees at $50, limiting them to one per applicant per ninety days, requiring fees to be itemized in the listing, and renumbering § 47-8-48 so the two-times-monthly-rent penalty for a self-help eviction now sits at subsection C. Notice periods did not change: HB 462 (2025), which would have extended the nonpayment notice from three days to ten, was postponed indefinitely and never passed.

The most common New Mexico defect is service. Section 47-8-13(D) allows posting alone only for a nonpayment notice; every other notice, including the seven-day cure, the three-day substantial violation, and the thirty-day termination, requires a first-class mailing or hand delivery in addition to any posting, and a posted notice must be taped on all four sides or placed in a designated mail receptacle. Neither the owner nor an employee may serve the petition and summons; use the sheriff, a process server, or any non-party adult, and file the return of service before the court date or the judge will not act. Do not reach for the three-day substantial violation notice on an ordinary breach: § 47-8-33(M) imposes a civil penalty of two times the monthly rent plus damages and costs for a frivolous or bad-faith action. Section 47-8-33(G) also locks you to the grounds stated in your notice. An owner may self-represent, and an LLC may appear through an authorized officer, member, or manager using the notarized Form 4-403 NMRA, but only if the entity is closely held by natural persons active in the business.

• NMSA 1978 § 47-8-33
• NMSA 1978 § 47-8-37
• NMSA 1978 § 47-8-36