Free New Mexico Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable New Mexico residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act — the term-based deposit rule, the thirty-day itemized statement, and the 5% late-fee ceiling New Mexico set in 2025.

New Mexico NMSA 1978 ch. 47 art. 8 Owner & Resident Free PDF 2026 Edition

A New Mexico residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act, codified at NMSA 1978, Chapter 47, Article 8, sections 47-8-1 through 47-8-52. New Mexico is unusual in two ways that a generic template will never capture. First, the statute does not speak of landlords and tenants at all: it speaks of the owner and the resident, and this generator uses the statutory words so the document reads the way the courts read the law. Second, New Mexico changed its rental-fee law materially in 2025, and almost nothing published about the state has caught up. Laws 2025, Chapter 122 halved the late-fee ceiling from 10% to 5%, added four brand-new sections about application costs and fee disclosure, and made charging an undisclosed fee an unfair trade practice. Every ranking New Mexico lease template checked for this page still prints the repealed 10% figure. The generator below builds a lease to the statute as it reads now.

Complete the fields below to generate a New Mexico residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations, the itemized fee schedule and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling New Mexico section at each point. Before you hand keys to anyone, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with a New Mexico move-in / move-out checklist so the thirty-day statement rests on documented condition rather than memory.

Because the statute does. The Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act defines owner at NMSA 1978 47-8-3(M) as one or more persons in whom is vested all or part of the legal title to property, or all or part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the premises, including a mortgagee in possession and lessors. It defines resident at 47-8-3(R) as a person entitled under a rental agreement to occupy a dwelling unit in peaceful possession to the exclusion of others, and it expressly includes the owner of a mobile home renting premises as a site for the home.

This is not a stylistic quirk to be smoothed over. Every notice provision, every remedy and every deadline in the act is written in those terms, and a lease that says “landlord” and “tenant” throughout still has to be mapped onto the statutory vocabulary the moment anyone reads it in court. The generated document therefore uses owner and resident from the title page down, exactly as the act does, while remaining a perfectly ordinary residential lease in every other respect.

The act also defines several terms that decide outcomes. Abandonment at 47-8-3(A) is absence from the dwelling without notice to the owner in excess of seven continuous days, and only where that absence occurs after rent is delinquent. Normal wear and tear at 47-8-3(K) is deterioration from the use for which the unit is intended, without negligence, carelessness, accident, abuse or intentional damage, and the definition adds that uncleanliness does not constitute normal wear and tear. Substantial violation at 47-8-3(V) is a closed list of seven kinds of conduct, occurring in the unit, on the premises or within three hundred feet of the premises. Since 2025 the act also defines applicant and screening fee, which is how the new fee rules reach people who never become residents at all.

It depends on the length of the agreement, and that is the single most misreported rule in the state. NMSA 1978 47-8-18(A) has two paragraphs and they do different things.

Paragraph (2) is the cap: under the terms of a rental agreement of a duration less than one year, an owner shall not demand or receive from the resident such a deposit in an amount in excess of one month’s rent. That is a hard ceiling, and it is the rule for a six-month lease or a month-to-month residency.

Paragraph (1) is not a cap at all: under the terms of an annual rental agreement, if the owner demands or receives of the resident such a deposit in an amount greater than one month’s rent, the owner shall be required to pay to the resident annually an interest equal to the passbook interest permitted to savings and loan associations in this state by the federal home loan bank board on such deposit. So on a twelve-month lease an owner may take more than a month — and the price of doing so is an annual interest payment to the resident. Summaries that report New Mexico as a flat one-month state are collapsing two different rules into one and losing the interest duty entirely.

Two mechanics complete the picture. Under 47-8-18(B) the last month’s prepaid rent, where the agreement requires it, is not part of this section, and a deposit is not to be construed as prepaid rent — keep the two figures separate in the lease. And the interest referent itself is worth flagging honestly: the passbook rate is tied to a federal agency that no longer exists in the form named, so owners taking a large deposit on an annual lease should agree a concrete rate in writing and record it, which is why the form above has a field for it. Our New Mexico security deposit laws guide goes further into the mechanics.

The owner loses the deposit fight before it starts. NMSA 1978 47-8-18(C) sets the duty: on termination, deposits may be applied to rent and to damages the owner suffered from the resident’s noncompliance with the agreement or with 47-8-22, no deposit shall be retained to cover normal wear and tear, and where actual cause exists for retaining any part of it the owner must give the resident an itemized written list of the deductions and the balance within thirty days of the date of termination of the rental agreement or of resident departure, whichever is later. Mailing the statement and any payment to the resident’s last known address is compliance.

Then 47-8-18(D), which is where the teeth are. An owner who fails to provide the written statement and the balance shown due within thirty days:

• forfeits the right to withhold any portion of the deposit — not the disputed portion, any portion;
• forfeits the right to assert any counterclaim in an action brought to recover the deposit;
• is liable for the resident’s court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees; and
• forfeits the right to assert an independent action against the resident for damage to the rental property.

The fourth limb is the one owners never see coming. Missing the statement does not merely cost the deposit; it extinguishes the separate damages claim the owner might otherwise have brought for the same damage. On top of that, 47-8-18(E) makes an owner who in bad faith retains a deposit liable for a civil penalty of two hundred fifty dollars payable to the resident. Build the statement with our New Mexico security deposit itemization form and send it with a deposit return letter well inside the thirty days.

Rent is payable without demand or notice at the time and place agreed, and the late fee is capped at 5%. NMSA 1978 47-8-15(B) supplies the defaults where the lease is silent: rent is payable at the dwelling unit, periodic rent is payable at the beginning of any term of one month or less and otherwise in equal monthly installments at the beginning of each monthly period, and the date of one month to the same date of the following month constitutes a term of one month.

The late-fee rule at 47-8-15(D) is the headline number on this page, and it changed in 2025. As amended by Laws 2025, Chapter 122, the subsection allows a late fee only if the rental agreement provides for one, caps it at 5% of the rent for each rental period the resident is in default, and adds two limits that did not exist before: late fees shall be calculated only based on rent, and rent calculations to determine late fees shall not include deposits, additional fees or utilities. The timing rule survives the amendment: to assess a late fee, the owner must give notice of the fee charged no later than the last day of the next rental period immediately following the period in which the default occurred. A fee charged silently, or charged for the first time months later, is not assessed in accordance with the statute. Our New Mexico late fee laws guide works through the arithmetic.

New Mexico sets no statutory grace period. If rent is due on the first it is late on the second unless the agreement creates a grace period. Two further subsections are easy to miss. Under 47-8-15(E) an owner may not assess a fee for occupancy by a reasonable number of guests for a reasonable length of time, though charges for the use of premises or facilities other than the dwelling unit by guests remain permissible. And under 47-8-15(G), unless the owner and resident agree in writing, a resident’s payment of rent may not be allocated to any deposits or damages — which is precisely the manoeuvre that turns a paid month into an alleged non-payment.

Rent increases have their own rule at 47-8-15(F): thirty days’ written notice before the periodic rental date in a month-to-month residency, or at least thirty days before the end of the term in a fixed-term residency, and one full rental period in advance where the residency runs in periods shorter than a month. The New Mexico rent increase notice produces a compliant notice, and New Mexico rent increase laws covers the timing traps.

Four new sections, and no ranking template mentions any of them. Laws 2025, Chapter 122 — Senate Bill 267, signed on 8 April 2025 — inserted NMSA 1978 47-8-19.1 through 47-8-19.4 into the act and amended the Unfair Practices Act to enforce them.

47-8-19.1 — owner disclosure to applicants. An owner must disclose to applicants in plain language all costs of a rental agreement in a published listing of the dwelling unit, including the base rent and a description of all fees or charges that will be assessed during the residency, itemized and readily identifiable in the listing. The section adds a sensible carve-out: an owner is not liable for a third-party website’s failure to represent all the costs the owner supplied.

47-8-19.2 — screening fee and prohibited fees. A screening fee may not exceed fifty dollars, and the owner must give written or digital notice of it with the applicant’s written agreement to pay, must not charge it when the owner knows or should know no unit is or will be available, must give a receipt, must hold the card authorisation or delay depositing cash or cheques until all prior applicants have been screened and rejected or have declined, and shall not charge any other fees to process an application. The fee must be returned within thirty calendar days if a prior applicant takes the unit, or if the owner did not actually obtain a credit report, perform a reference check, use a screening service or process the application.

47-8-19.3 — background checks. An owner may require a background check, but may not charge more than one screening fee to the same applicant where the screening was completed within ninety calendar days of the application date for any properties under the same ownership, and must provide the applicant with a copy of any reports used to screen them.

47-8-19.4 — notice of fee changes. An owner may increase a fee provided for by the rental agreement only on sixty days’ written notice before the periodic rental date, or sixty days before the end of a fixed term. That is twice the notice the same act requires for a rent increase, which is a genuinely counter-intuitive result and a good reason to state it in the lease.

Enforcement comes from two directions. NMSA 1978 47-8-48(B), as amended by the same act, makes an owner who charges an unauthorized screening fee liable for two hundred fifty dollars and obliged to return all fees paid. And 57-12-2(D)(20) makes charging an applicant a fee in violation of the act an unfair or deceptive trade practice, with a companion section declaring it an unfair or deceptive practice to charge a fee not published in the listing or to charge fees that are not included in the rental agreement. That is why the builder above has an itemized fee schedule rather than a free-text box: in New Mexico the fee list is now part of the legal document. Screening practice is covered in New Mexico tenant screening laws.

Twenty-four hours, in writing, and the notice has four required elements. NMSA 1978 47-8-24(A)(1) provides that unless the owner and resident otherwise agree, the owner may enter only after giving the resident twenty-four hours written notification of the intent to enter, the purpose for entry, and the date and a reasonable estimate of the time frame of the entry. Competitor pages routinely reduce this to “twenty-four hours’ notice”, which is not what the subsection says: a phone call the day before is not written notification, and a written note that omits the purpose or the time frame is short of the statute.

The entry purposes are the familiar list — inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, necessary or agreed services, and exhibiting the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, prospective residents, workmen or contractors. Two situations sit outside the notice rule entirely under 47-8-24(A)(2): entry to perform repairs or services within seven days of a request by the resident, and entry where the owner is accompanied by a public official conducting an inspection or by a cable television, electric, gas or telephone company representative. Under 47-8-24(B) the owner may enter without consent in case of an emergency.

New Mexico then adds a duty that has no analogue in many states. Under 47-8-24(A)(3), where the resident gives reasonable prior notice and alternate times or dates for entry, and it is practicable or will not result in economic detriment to the owner, the owner shall attempt to reasonably accommodate the alternate time. The remaining subsections set the outer limits: the owner shall not abuse the right of access and has no other right of access except by court order, on abandonment or surrender, where the resident has been absent more than seven days, or as 47-8-34 permits. A refusal of lawful access lets the owner seek injunctive relief or terminate and recover damages; an unlawful entry, a lawful entry made unreasonably, or repeated demands that unreasonably interfere with quiet enjoyment let the resident do exactly the same. Use the New Mexico notice to enter form so the four elements are documented, and see New Mexico landlord entry laws for the detail.

NMSA 1978 47-8-20(A) places six duties on the owner: substantially comply with the applicable minimum housing codes materially affecting health and safety; make repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a safe condition; keep common areas in a safe condition; maintain in good and safe working order the electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioning and other facilities and appliances, including elevators, supplied or required to be supplied by the owner; provide and maintain receptacles for ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste and arrange for removal; and supply running water and a reasonable amount of hot water at all times and reasonable heat. Where a minimum housing code applies, 47-8-20(B) makes that code the measure of the owner’s maximum duty.

Subsections (C) to (E) govern shifting those duties. In a single family residence the parties may agree that the resident performs the waste and water-and-heat duties and specified repairs, maintenance, alterations or remodeling — but only in writing, for consideration, in good faith and not to evade the owner’s obligations. In any other dwelling unit the resident may agree to perform specified repairs only under a separate signed writing supported by consideration that does not diminish the owner’s obligations to other residents. Critically, 47-8-20(E) provides that no such arrangement diminishes the owner’s obligations, and that a resident’s failure to perform an owner obligation is not a basis for eviction and is not a material breach.

The resident’s own duties sit at 47-8-22 and run from complying with housing-code obligations materially affecting health or safety, through keeping the occupied part clean and safe and returning the unit as clean as it was excepting ordinary wear and tear, to not knowingly committing or consenting to a substantial violation. Note 47-8-22(F): the duty not to deliberately or negligently destroy, deface, damage, impair or remove any part of the premises is the one 47-8-48(D) backs with a liability of two times the monthly rent where the resident violates it intentionally.

When the owner does not repair, 47-8-27.1 gives the resident a seven-day written notice specifying the acts and omissions, stating that the agreement terminates on a date not less than seven days after receipt if a reasonable attempt to remedy is not made in seven days. If the owner makes a reasonable attempt to adequately remedy before that date, the agreement does not terminate. The alternative is abatement under 47-8-27.2: after written notice and seven days, the resident may abate one third of the pro-rata daily rent for each day until the condition is remedied, or 100% of the rent for each day the dwelling is uninhabitable and the resident does not live in it as a result. The resident may not use both remedies for the same violation in the same rental period, and abatement is never available for the unavailability of an amenity. Our New Mexico habitability guide covers the notice mechanics.

Three days for rent, seven days for a first breach, seven days with no cure for a second, and three days for a substantial violation. NMSA 1978 47-8-33 is the whole architecture, and it is far more structured than the single seven-day notice most summaries describe.

Nonpayment — 47-8-33(D). If rent is unpaid when due and the resident fails to pay within three days after written notice of the nonpayment and of the owner’s intention to terminate, the owner may terminate and the resident must immediately deliver possession. Tender of the full amount due, in the manner stated in the notice, before the three-day notice expires bars any action for nonpayment. Use the New Mexico three-day notice to pay rent or quit, and a late rent notice before it if you want a softer first step.

Initial material breach — 47-8-33(A). The notice must specify the acts and omissions constituting the breach including the dates and specific facts describing its nature, and state that the agreement terminates on a date not less than seven days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in seven days. A notice that recites a conclusion rather than dates and facts is defective on the face of the section. The New Mexico notice to cure or quit handles this track.

Second breach within six months — 47-8-33(B) and (C). On a second material noncompliance within six months of the initial breach, the owner delivers a seven-day notice and the agreement shall terminate — there is no right to cure. Two conditions make that possible: the initial notice must have stated that a second breach within six months terminates the agreement, and to be effective any such notice must be given within thirty days of the breach or of knowledge of it. A breach occurring more than six months after the initial one counts as an initial breach again. This is the provision owners most often lose on, because the second notice is only as good as what the first one said.

Substantial violation — 47-8-33(I). Where the resident knowingly commits, or consents to another person committing, a substantial violation, the notice specifies the time, place and nature of the act and terminates the agreement on a date not less than three days after receipt. The act supplies three defences: the resident is a victim of domestic violence under 47-8-33(J), and where a temporary domestic violence restraining order has been sought or secured as a result of the incident the writ of restitution shall not issue; the resident did not know of and could not reasonably have known of or prevented another person’s violation, under 47-8-33(K); and the resident took reasonable and lawful action in defence of self, others or property, under 47-8-33(L). Where the court finds such an action frivolous or brought in bad faith, 47-8-33(M) subjects the petitioner to a civil penalty of two times the monthly rent plus damages and costs. The New Mexico unconditional quit notice is the form for this track, and New Mexico eviction notice laws covers the court stage.

Counting the days — 47-8-33(H). Where the last day for remedying a breach under any written notice required by the act falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, the period to remedy is extended to the next day that is neither. The same rule appears at 47-8-27.1(E) for the resident’s notice to the owner. A landlord who counts straight calendar days through a holiday weekend has served short.

Nonpayment notices have their own rule, and everything else has a stricter one. NMSA 1978 47-8-13(D) is short and consequential. A notice to a resident for nonpayment of rent is effective only when hand delivered, mailed to the resident, or posted on an exterior door of the dwelling unit — posting alone works. In every other case where written notice to the resident is required, even where there is a notice by posting, there must also be a mailing by first class mail or a hand delivery. Owners who post everything and mail nothing have served a valid rent notice and an invalid cure notice, which is a very expensive way to discover the distinction.

The section adds detail that matters in practice. The date of a posting must be included in any notice posted, mailed or hand delivered, and it constitutes the effective date of the notice. A posted notice must be affixed to a door by taping all sides, or placed in a fixture or receptacle designed for notices or mail. And under 47-8-13(F), where an item is mailed but returned as undeliverable, or where the last known address is the vacated dwelling unit, the owner must serve at least one additional notice to any alternative address the resident has provided.

For a residency without a fixed term, NMSA 1978 47-8-37 sets the notice periods. Either party may terminate a week-to-week residency by written notice given at least seven days before the termination date specified in the notice, and a month-to-month residency by written notice given at least thirty days before the periodic rental date specified in the notice. The thirty days runs to the periodic rental date, not to any date the owner picks. The New Mexico notice to vacate and the notice of non-renewal cover both directions.

If the resident remains in possession without consent after expiration or termination, the owner may bring an action for possession, and where the holdover is willful and not in good faith the owner may in addition recover the damages sustained and reasonable attorney’s fees under 47-8-37(C). New Mexico does not put a multiple-of-rent figure on holdover damages; the recovery is actual damages plus fees.

Two further exits are worth knowing. Under 47-8-31, where the premises are damaged or destroyed by fire or casualty to an extent that enjoyment of the unit is substantially impaired, the resident may vacate and give written notice within seven days of an intention to terminate, terminating as of the date of vacating; or, if continued occupancy is lawful, vacate the unusable part and have rent reduced in proportion to the diminution in fair rental value. And under 47-8-26, if the owner fails to deliver possession at the agreed time, 100% of the rent abates until possession is delivered and the prospective resident may terminate immediately on written notice and recover all prepaid rent and deposits, or demand performance and sue. New Mexico lease termination laws and breaking-lease laws go further.

New Mexico is one of the more procedural states here, and the period depends on how the residency ended. NMSA 1978 47-8-34.1 sets three tracks.

Where the agreement terminates by abandonment, the owner must store all personal property left on the premises for not less than thirty days and must serve written notice of an intent to dispose of it on a date not less than thirty days from the notice, containing a telephone number and address at which the resident can reach the owner to retrieve the property. The notice is personally delivered or sent first class mail to the last known address, and where it is returned undeliverable or the last known address is the vacated unit, the owner must also serve at least one notice to another address the resident supplied — a place of employment, a family member or an emergency contact on record. The resident may retrieve the property at any time before the stated date, and the owner must provide reasonable access and adequate opportunity to do so.

Where the agreement terminates by the resident’s voluntary surrender, the storage period is fourteen days from the date of surrender. Where it terminates by a writ of restitution, the owner has no obligation to store anything after three days following execution of the writ, unless the parties agree otherwise.

Value then decides disposal. Property with a market value of less than one hundred dollars may be disposed of in any manner. Above that figure the owner may sell it, mailing any proceeds in excess of money due, with an itemized statement, within fifteen days; or retain it for use, crediting the resident with its fair market value and mailing any excess with an itemized statement within fifteen days. Reasonable storage fees and the prevailing rate of moving fees may be charged and required before release. What the owner may not do is hold property for other claimed debts, or for judgments where no application for a writ of execution has been filed.

Separately, 47-8-34.2 lets the owner ask the resident in writing — including by a term of the rental agreement — to name a contact person to be contacted and to receive property in the event of the resident’s death, together with a signed authorisation for access, removal and refund of the deposit less lawful deductions. Where the resident does not name one after a written request, the owner has no responsibility after the resident’s death for removal, storage, disappearance, damage or disposition of the property. The builder above offers that clause as an option.

New Mexico does not publish a numbered list of prohibited clauses the way some uniform-act states do. It achieves the same result through four provisions that operate together, and imported templates trip over all four.

NMSA 1978 47-8-16 — waiver of rights prohibited. “No rental agreement may prov