Landlord Atlas

How much notice must a landlord give before entering in New Mexico?

Verified July 11, 2026 All New Mexico topics →

New Mexico landlords must give 24 hours' written notice before entering a rental unit, and the notice must state the purpose, the date, and a reasonable estimate of the time frame of the entry — an unusually specific content requirement.

Permitted reasons cover inspections, repairs, decorations, alterations, improvements, agreed services, and showings to prospective purchasers, lenders, tenants, workmen or contractors. Three no-notice paths exist: emergencies; repairs or services performed within seven days of the tenant's own request; and entry alongside a public official conducting an inspection or a cable, electric, gas or telephone company representative. The 24-hour rule is a default the parties may alter by agreement ('unless otherwise agreed'), and the tenant can propose alternate entry times that the landlord must try to accommodate. A tenant who refuses lawful access, or a landlord who enters unlawfully, unreasonably, or with harassing repeated demands, faces injunctive relief or lease termination plus damages. There are no statutory time-of-day limits.

New Mexico entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required 24 hours
Notice standard Written notice required: unless otherwise agreed by owner and resident, entry is allowed 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 (47-8-24(A)(1)).
Permitted reasons Inspect the premises; make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements; supply necessary or agreed services; or exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, prospective residents, workmen or contractors (47-8-24(A)). No advance notice is required to perform repairs or services within seven days of the resident's own request, or when the owner is accompanied by a public official conducting an inspection or a cable television, electric, gas or telephone company representative (47-8-24(A)(2)). Otherwise access exists only by court order, or on abandonment, surrender, or the resident's absence of more than seven days under 47-8-34 (47-8-24(D)).
Emergency exception Yes
Time-of-day restrictions None. The statute sets no clock hours; the only timing constraint is that the written notice must state the date and a reasonable estimate of the time frame of the entry, and the owner must attempt to reasonably accommodate resident-requested alternate times when practicable and not economically detrimental (47-8-24(A)(3)).

Notes and caveats

notice_hours = 24, statutory phrase 'twenty-four hours written notification' (47-8-24(A)(1)) — double-read: official RLD compilation verbatim + FindLaw mirror reconciled; section last amended Laws 1995, ch. 195, § 10, untouched by 2025 SB 267 and unamended in the 2025 statutes edition. Points page copy should carry: (1) notice must be WRITTEN — stricter than many states — and must contain intent + purpose + date + estimated time frame; (2) the lead-in 'unless otherwise agreed upon by the owner and resident' makes the whole 24-hour default waivable or modifiable by agreement, so lease clauses shortening it are enforceable — unusual and routinely missed; (3) the seven-day resident-request exception means a tenant who asks for a repair has consented to unannounced entry to perform it for the next seven days; (4) the utility-representative/public-official accompaniment exception is uncommon nationally; (5) 47-8-24(D) is an exhaustive residual list (court order; abandonment/surrender; absence over seven days per 47-8-34, and 47-8-25 lets the rental agreement require notification of extended absences over seven days); (6) remedies run both ways under (E)/(F) — injunction or termination plus damages, with no statutory minimum-damages figure, so do not import other states' one-month floors.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Verbatim reads of two independent official documents, each downloaded and text-extracted in full: (1) the NM Regulation & Licensing Department's official UORRA compilation PDF (rld.nm.gov, 2019 edition) for sections 47-8-15 (pre-2025 baseline), 47-8-18, 47-8-24, 47-8-37 and full-chapter negative sweeps (no escrow/interest-account rule, no grace period, no pet-deposit statute, no frequency limit); and (2) the final (enrolled, SJC substitute) version of 2025 SB 267 on nmlegis.gov (Laws 2025, ch. 122, signed 2025-04-08, effective 2025-06-20) for the current text of 47-8-15 (5% late fee), new sections 47-8-19.1 to 47-8-19.4, and amended 47-8-48. Every load-bearing figure reconciled against FindLaw (mirror stamped current 2024-01-01) and Justia 2025-edition amendment notes; the two officials agree with each other and the mirrors on the 1-month deposit cap for sub-annual agreements, annual-lease interest trigger, 30-day return, $250 bad-faith penalty, 5% late fee and its notice-to-assess mechanic, 30-days-before-the-rental-date increase rule, and 24-hour written entry notice. Section 47-8A-1 (rent control preemption) initially verified on two mirrors reconciled verbatim (Justia + FindLaw) because the official host nmonesource.com returns HTTP 403 to automated fetches; a same-day (2026-07-11) in-app browser-pane session then read the official compiled code directly on nmonesource.com (NMSA Unannotated, Chapter 47), sight-verifying 47-8A-1 verbatim (subsections A-C, History: Laws 1991, ch. 23, § 1), the compiled 47-8-15 text including the 5% subsection (D) and the 2025 ch. 122 history line, the compiled section numbers 47-8-19.1 through 47-8-19.4, and the unamended history lines of 47-8-18 (1975/1985/1989) and 47-8-24 (1975/1995) — all matching the encoding. Pending-bill sweep 2026-07-11: 2026 regular session (30-day) adjourned sine die 2026-02-19; SB 138 (repeal rent control prohibition) died in committee (Action Postponed Indefinitely, confirmed on the official nmlegis.gov bill page); no UORRA bill touching the four topics passed.