Free New Mexico Landlord Forms
Every New Mexico owner-resident form we publish, organised by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the statute that triggers it and with the official court form number that comes next.
Every form linked on this page is free, fillable in your browser, and downloadable as a PDF with no account, no membership and no paywall. New Mexico tenancies run on the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act, NMSA 1978 chapter 47 article 8 — and note the vocabulary: New Mexico says owner and resident, not landlord and tenant. The statute uses those words, and so do the court forms.
The short version
- Nonpayment of rent — three days, and tender of the full amount before expiry bars the action.
- Other noncompliance — seven days to remedy, seven days to terminate; the second material noncompliance within six months carries no cure right.
- Substantial violation — three days, unconditional, on seven enumerated grounds described as the sole grounds.
- Late fees are capped at five per cent — cut from ten by 2025 legislation, and calculated on rent only.
- Screening fees are capped at fifty dollars and are refundable in defined circumstances; no other application-processing fee is allowed.
- Deposit cap depends on the term. Under a year, one month’s rent. A year or more, no dollar cap — but interest is owed above one month.
- Entry — twenty-four hours’ written notice stating the purpose, date and a reasonable time estimate.
The Late-Fee Cap Changed in 2025 — and Most Sources Still Publish the Old One
New Mexico’s late-fee ceiling is FIVE per cent of the rent, not ten. Senate Bill 267 (2025, chapter 122), signed 8 April 2025 and effective 20 June 2025, amended § 47-8-15 — the enrolled markup reads “not to exceed [ten] five percent of the [total rent payment] rent”. Note the second change hidden in that line: the base is now rent, not “total rent payment”, so the fee is calculated on rent alone and excludes deposits, additional fees and utilities.
At least one major legal publisher is still rendering § 47-8-15 as current to January 2024 with the ten per cent figure. Anyone relying on it publishes the wrong number.
Two more conditions attach. The fee must be written into the agreement to be chargeable at all — there is no default late fee. And there is a deadline for assessing it: the owner “shall provide notice of the late fee charged no later than the last day of the next rental period immediately following the period in which the default occurred”. Charge it late and you lose it. There is no grace period; rent is payable without demand or notice at the time and place agreed. See our New Mexico late fee laws guide.
New Mexico’s Four Notices, and When Each Applies
| Situation | Notice | Statute | Court form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpayment of rent | 3 days — but tender of the full amount before expiry bars the action | § 47-8-33(D) | 4-901 |
| Substantial violation | 3 days, unconditional — no cure | § 47-8-33(I) | 4-901A |
| Other material noncompliance | 7 days to remedy; terminates on a date not less than seven days after receipt if not remedied in seven | § 47-8-33(A) | 4-902 |
| Second noncompliance within six months | 7 days, NO right to cure | § 47-8-33(B) | 4-902 |
| Termination without fault | 30 days month-to-month (7 days week-to-week), mutual | § 47-8-37 | 4-903 |
Three details make the difference between a valid notice and a wasted one.
- The repeat rule is stricter than people write it. Section 47-8-33(B) says “the second material noncompliance” — there is no requirement that it be substantially similar to the first. Any second material noncompliance within six months of the initial breach qualifies, and a breach more than six months later “shall constitute an initial breach”.
- There is a thirty-day window to give the notice — within thirty days of the breach or of knowledge of it, § 47-8-33(C). Sit on a violation and you lose the right to notice it.
- Deadlines extend over weekends and federal holidays. A cure deadline falling on a weekend or a federal holiday runs to the next business day, § 47-8-33(H).
“Substantial violation” is a defined term, not a judgement call. Section 47-8-3 lists seven enumerated acts described as the sole grounds — including conduct occurring within three hundred feet of the premises and property damage over one thousand dollars — and it expressly excludes misdemeanour possession or use of a controlled substance. If your facts are not on that list, the three-day unconditional route is not open. Our New Mexico eviction notice laws guide sets out each ground.
Every New Mexico Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy
An alphabetical list is the least useful arrangement, because an owner arrives knowing what has happened, not what the document is called. The index below is ordered by where you are in the tenancy.
Starting the tenancy
- New Mexico residential lease agreement — the master document. Any late fee must be written into it, and it must not contain the provisions § 47-8-17 prohibits.
- Lead-based paint form — required by federal law, not New Mexico law, for any dwelling built before 1978.
- Move-in / move-out condition checklist — the record that makes a deposit itemisation defensible thirty days after the resident leaves.
During the tenancy
- Notice to enter the property — § 47-8-24(A) requires twenty-four hours’ written notice stating the intent, the purpose, the date and a reasonable time estimate. Four elements, all of them required.
- Rent increase notice — New Mexico bars municipal rent control, so the constraint is the notice period. A fee increase, by contrast, now needs sixty days’ written notice.
- Late rent notice — and remember the late fee must be noticed by the last day of the next rental period.
- Month-to-Month Rental Agreement
- Sublease Agreement
When the resident breaches
- Three-day notice to pay rent or quit — § 47-8-33(D), the equivalent of court form 4-901.
- Notice to cure or quit — the seven-day noncompliance notice under § 47-8-33(A), the equivalent of form 4-902.
- Unconditional quit notice — the three-day substantial-violation notice under § 47-8-33(I), the equivalent of form 4-901A.
Ending the tenancy without fault
- Notice of non-renewal — thirty days for a month-to-month tenancy under § 47-8-37(B), the equivalent of form 4-903.
- Resident notice to vacate — the obligation is mutual, so the same periods bind both sides.
After the resident moves out
- Security deposit itemisation — the itemised written list § 47-8-18(C) requires within thirty days.
- Security deposit return letter — the covering document; mailing to the last known address suffices.
How Our Forms Map to the Official Court Forms
New Mexico’s judiciary publishes an unusually complete numbered set under Rules 4-901 and following, and knowing which document is the pre-suit notice and which is the court filing saves a wasted trip to the clerk.
| Form | What it is |
|---|---|
| 4-901 | Three-day notice, nonpayment of rent |
| 4-901A | Three-day notice, substantial violation |
| 4-902 | Seven-day notice of noncompliance |
| 4-902A | Resident’s seven-day abatement or termination notice |
| 4-903 | Thirty-day termination notice |
| 4-904 | Petition by owner for restitution — the court filing |
| 4-905 | Summons and notice of trial |
| 4-907 | Answer |
| 4-909 / 4-909A | Judgment for restitution |
| 4-913 | Writ of restitution |
Forms 4-901 through 4-903 are the notices — served on the resident, not filed. Everything from 4-904 onward belongs to the court. A parallel mobile home park series exists at 4-921 to 4-929 under the Mobile Home Park Act, which no commercial forms page covers and which we do not publish forms for.
Screening and Application Fees: New in 2025
Senate Bill 267 added four new sections, and the ones that touch your paperwork most directly are about money taken before a tenancy exists.
The screening fee is capped at fifty dollars (§ 47-8-19.2), and it is refundable within thirty days if another applicant takes the unit or if the owner never ran the screening. No other application-processing fees are permitted. Charging an unauthorised screening fee makes the owner liable for two hundred and fifty dollars plus the return of all fees (§ 47-8-48(B)).
Separately, fee increases need sixty days’ written notice before the periodic rental date or the end of a fixed term (§ 47-8-19.4). That is a longer runway than the thirty days most owners assume applies to everything.
See our New Mexico tenant screening laws guide for how these interact with the federal screening rules.
Security Deposits: The Cap Depends on the Term
This is the most commonly misstated New Mexico rule, and it is misstated because there is no single number.
| Agreement | Cap | Interest |
|---|---|---|
| Less than one year | Maximum one month’s rent, § 47-8-18(A)(2) | None |
| One year or more (annual) | No dollar cap stated | If the deposit exceeds one month’s rent, interest is owed — “an interest equal to the passbook interest permitted to savings and loan associations in this state by the federal home loan bank board”, paid annually, § 47-8-18(A)(1) |
The return rule has its own quirk of timing. The itemised written list plus the balance is due within thirty days of termination OR of the resident’s departure, whichever is LATER (§ 47-8-18(C)). Mailing to the last known address suffices.
The penalty for missing the thirty days is unusually broad. Failure to provide the statement means the owner forfeits the right to withhold anything, forfeits any counterclaim, and forfeits an independent action for damages — and is liable for court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. Bad-faith retention adds a two hundred and fifty dollar civil penalty (§ 47-8-18(D),(E)). Losing the counterclaim is the part that hurts: an owner who misses the deadline cannot even raise the damage in the eviction case.
See our New Mexico security deposit laws guide.
Serving a New Mexico Notice
Service is governed by § 47-8-13, and it draws a distinction most templates miss.
- A nonpayment notice is effective “only when hand delivered or mailed… or posted on an exterior door” — posting alone works.
- For every other notice, posting alone is insufficient. It must be accompanied by first-class mailing or hand delivery.
There is no add-days-for-mailing rule in New Mexico. Two publisher families were checked. The Act’s only time extension is the weekend and federal-holiday rule at § 47-8-33(H). Do not build a mailing buffer into your date calculation — but do note the holiday extension, which is genuine.
Entry and the Rules That Are Not What Templates Assume
Entry requires twenty-four hours’ written notice stating the intent, the purpose, the date and a reasonable time estimate (§ 47-8-24(A)). There is no hours-of-day restriction in the statute. The exceptions are an emergency; repairs within seven days of the resident’s own request; entry accompanied by a public official or a utility or cable representative; and abandonment or an absence over seven days. See our New Mexico landlord entry laws guide.
Two further New Mexico peculiarities are worth stating because generic templates assume the opposite:
- There is no resident repair-and-deduct right of the usual kind (§ 47-8-27.1). A lease clause borrowed from a repair-and-deduct state does not reflect New Mexico law.
- Municipal rent control is barred (§ 47-8A-1(A)), so no city ordinance sets a ceiling on an increase.
And the highest-value compliance topic in the whole Act sits in two sections that never appear on a forms page: § 47-8-17 prohibited lease provisions and § 47-8-12 inequitable provisions, which carry damages and attorney-fee exposure. A lease that survives those two sections is worth more than any notice you will ever serve.
Which New Mexico Form Do I Need?
- The resident has not paid rent. Three-day notice. If they tender the full amount before it expires, the action is barred — take the money.
- The facts are on the seven-item substantial-violation list. Three days, unconditional. If they are not on the list, this route is closed.
- Any other material noncompliance. Seven days — and serve within thirty days of the breach or of learning about it.
- It has happened a second time within six months. Seven days with no cure right, and it need not be the same kind of breach.
- Nobody is at fault and you want the tenancy to end. Thirty days month-to-month, seven days week-to-week, and it binds both sides.
- You need to get into the property. Twenty-four hours in writing, with purpose, date and time estimate.
- The resident has moved out. Itemisation plus balance within thirty days of termination or departure, whichever is later.
How to Fill Out a New Mexico Three-Day Notice
- Name every resident and describe the premises as the agreement does.
- State the exact amount of rent due and the period. Keep late fees out of the rent figure — the five per cent cap applies to rent, and tender of the rent bars the action.
- Give three days from receipt, and check whether the deadline falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, in which case it runs to the next business day.
- Serve it correctly. For nonpayment, hand delivery, mail or posting on an exterior door all work. For any other notice, posting alone does not.
- Do not add days for mailing. No such rule exists in the Act.
- Accept a full tender. Section 47-8-33(D) bars the action if the resident pays in full before the notice expires.
- Keep the notice — you will attach it to the petition for restitution, court form 4-904.
- File in the right court — magistrate court, or metropolitan court in Bernalillo County.
What Happens If the Form Is Wrong
The distinctively New Mexico error is using the three-day unconditional notice for conduct that is not on the statutory list. Section 47-8-3 calls its seven acts the sole grounds, so a substantial-violation notice for something outside them is not merely weak — it is the wrong instrument.
The second is missing the thirty-day window to give a noncompliance notice after the breach or knowledge of it.
The third is a money error: charging ten per cent, which was lawful until June 2025 and is not now, or charging a late fee that was never written into the agreement, or noticing it after the last day of the next rental period.
The fourth is the deposit itemisation. Missing thirty days does not just cost the deduction — it costs the counterclaim and the independent damages action too.
Court and Costs
Evictions go to magistrate court, or to the metropolitan court in Bernalillo County; the district court has concurrent jurisdiction where rent is fifty dollars a month or more. The civil limit in magistrate and metropolitan court is ten thousand dollars.
We do not publish a New Mexico filing fee. Section 35-6-1 is the right statute, but every rendering we could obtain truncates before the total, and the figure circulating online turns out to be the sum of two statutory earmarks rather than a quoted fee. A competing figure came from a document that would not parse. Section 34-8A-6, often cited for the metropolitan court, contains no fees at all. Ask the clerk — a number we cannot verify is worse than no number.
What This Page Does Not Have
We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. New Mexico owners also commonly want a rental application, a New Mexico Association of Realtors lease, a sublease, a roommate agreement, a commercial lease, a lease-to-own agreement, the Broker Duties form, a general addendum and a property management agreement. Those are not published here as New Mexico-specific forms, and neither is the mobile home park series.
We have also not published the verbatim text of the whole of § 47-8-33 — several subsections could not be retrieved from any source we trust — or the court form PDFs themselves. Where we could not read it, we say so.
Common New Mexico Landlord Form Mistakes
- Charging a ten per cent late fee. The cap has been five per cent since June 2025.
- Calculating the fee on the total payment. The base is rent alone.
- Charging a late fee that is not in the agreement, or noticing it after the last day of the next rental period.
- Using the substantial-violation notice off-list. The seven acts are the sole grounds.
- Adding a “substantially similar” test to the repeat rule. The statute says only “the second material noncompliance”.
- Waiting more than thirty days to give a noncompliance notice.
- Posting a non-rent notice on the door and nothing else. Only nonpayment notices may be served by posting alone.
- Adding days for mailing. There is no such rule.
- Assuming a single deposit cap. It depends on whether the term is under a year.
- Forgetting passbook interest on an annual agreement where the deposit exceeds one month’s rent.
- Missing the deposit itemisation deadline, which also forfeits the counterclaim.
- Charging more than fifty dollars to screen, or adding a second application-processing fee.
- Raising a fee on thirty days’ notice. Fee increases need sixty.
Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid New Mexico Form Sites
New Mexico’s results split neatly in two. The judiciary’s own page carries forty-three official forms and almost no law; the deepest commercial page carries eleven documents and about ten statute citations. They are within a few words of each other in length and they are opposite shapes.
The union of the two — the official form numbers plus the substance of the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act — does not exist anywhere. That is the gap this page fills, and it is why the mapping table above matters more than another lease template.
Every form linked from this page is free, fills in the browser, and downloads as a finished PDF. There is no account, no trial and no upsell attached to the documents themselves. What we ask in return is straightforward: if you are about to hand keys to someone, run the screening first — and note that New Mexico now caps what you may charge for it.
New Mexico Landlord Forms: FAQ
How many days is a New Mexico notice to pay rent or quit?
Three days under NMSA § 47-8-33(D). Note the built-in escape: tender of the full amount before the notice expires bars the action. The equivalent official court form is 4-901.
What is the late fee cap in New Mexico?
Five per cent of the rent. It was cut from ten per cent by Senate Bill 267 (2025, chapter 122), effective 20 June 2025, which also changed the base from “total rent payment” to “rent”. The fee must be written into the agreement, and the owner must give notice of the fee charged no later than the last day of the next rental period following the period in which the default occurred. Some publishers are still showing the repealed ten per cent figure.
How long is the cure period for a lease violation in New Mexico?
Seven days. Section 47-8-33(A) provides that the agreement terminates on a date not less than seven days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in seven days. The notice must be given within thirty days of the breach or of knowledge of it.
Does a second violation lose the cure right in New Mexico?
Yes. Under § 47-8-33(B) the second material noncompliance within six months of the initial breach carries seven days with no right to cure. The statute says only “the second material noncompliance” — there is no requirement that it be substantially similar to the first. A breach more than six months later counts as an initial breach again.
What counts as a substantial violation in New Mexico?
It is a defined term. Section 47-8-3 lists seven enumerated acts described as the sole grounds, including conduct within three hundred feet of the premises and property damage over one thousand dollars, and it expressly excludes misdemeanour possession or use of a controlled substance. The notice is three days, unconditional, court form 4-901A.
How much notice must a New Mexico owner give before entering?
Twenty-four hours’ written notice stating the intent, the purpose, the date and a reasonable time estimate, § 47-8-24(A). There is no hours-of-day restriction in the statute. Exceptions cover an emergency, repairs within seven days of the resident’s request, entry accompanied by a public official or a utility or cable representative, and abandonment or absence over seven days.
What is the security deposit cap in New Mexico?
It depends on the term. For an agreement of less than one year the maximum is one month’s rent, § 47-8-18(A)(2). For an annual agreement there is no dollar cap stated — but if the deposit exceeds one month’s rent the owner must pay interest equal to the passbook interest permitted to savings and loan associations in the state, annually.
How long does a New Mexico owner have to return a deposit?
Thirty days of termination or of the resident’s departure, whichever is later — an itemised written list plus the balance, § 47-8-18(C). Mailing to the last known address suffices.
What happens if a New Mexico owner misses the deposit deadline?
The owner forfeits the right to withhold any part of the deposit, forfeits any counterclaim, and forfeits an independent action for damages, and is liable for court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. Bad-faith retention adds a two hundred and fifty dollar civil penalty, § 47-8-18(D),(E).
Can a New Mexico owner charge an application or screening fee?
A screening fee is capped at fifty dollars under § 47-8-19.2 and must be refunded within thirty days if another applicant takes the unit or the owner never ran the screening. No other application-processing fees are permitted. An unauthorised screening fee makes the owner liable for two hundred and fifty dollars plus the return of all fees.
How much notice does a New Mexico fee increase need?
Sixty days’ written notice before the periodic rental date or the end of a fixed term, § 47-8-19.4 — longer than the thirty days that ends a month-to-month tenancy.
Did New Mexico extend the three-day rent notice to ten days?
No. House Bill 462, “Nonpayment of Rent Notice Period”, would have done so, but it was a 2025 bill and it died — action postponed indefinitely on 22 March 2025. Search results sometimes surface it with a 2026 framing. The three-day period stands.
Related New Mexico Guides
- New Mexico landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
- New Mexico eviction notice laws — every notice and its court form.
- New Mexico security deposit laws — the term-based cap and passbook interest.
- New Mexico lease termination laws — thirty and seven days, both ways.
- New Mexico breaking lease laws — early termination and abandonment.
- New Mexico rent increase laws — and why municipal rent control is barred.
- New Mexico late fee laws — the five per cent cap in detail.
- New Mexico landlord entry laws — the four required elements.
- New Mexico habitability laws — and why repair-and-deduct is different here.
- New Mexico pet and ESA laws — pets, deposits and assistance animals.
- New Mexico tenant screening laws — the fifty dollar cap and refunds.
Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team
Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful tenant screening and follow state landlord-tenant codes across all fifty states. New Mexico’s official compilation blocked every attempt to read it, so for this page we read the 2025 enrolled bill itself — which is how we caught that a major publisher is still serving the repealed ten per cent late-fee cap, and that the bill said to have extended the three-day notice actually died in committee.
Screen New Mexico Applicants Before They Sign
Most New Mexico owner-resident disputes trace back to a resident a thorough screening would have flagged. Order FCRA-ready credit, criminal and eviction reports and start every tenancy on solid ground.
Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about New Mexico owner-resident law, not legal advice. The 2025 session changed the late-fee cap and added screening-fee rules, so guidance written earlier is out of date, and at least one major publisher is still serving the repealed figure. We have deliberately omitted a filing fee and several subsections we could not verify from a source we trust. Confirm the current requirements with the clerk of your magistrate or metropolitan court or with a New Mexico attorney before you serve a notice or file a case.
