Homeowner rights in New Mexico

If you own a home in a New Mexico subdivision HOA, the Homeowner Association Act (NMSA 1978, §§ 47-16-1 to 47-16-18) governs your association — all of them, with narrow carve-outs: the Act applies to every homeowner association created and existing in the state, except that condominiums fall under the separate Condominium Act, and three sections (proxy and absentee voting, the financial audit, and attorney fees) don't reach associations established before July 1, 2013 that have fewer than thirty lots. Even in those small older communities, any amendment to the community documents must comply with the Act. If you own a condominium created after May 19, 1982, the Condominium Act — New Mexico's version of the Uniform Condominium Act — carries similar protections in its own numbering.

The HOA Act's teeth are unusually specific. An association that fails to make its financial and other records available within ten business days of a written request faces a rebuttable presumption that it willfully violated the Act, and owes the owner the greater of actual damages or fifty dollars per calendar day starting on the eleventh business day. No fine or suspension may be imposed without written notice and an opportunity to dispute, a hearing on fourteen days' notice if you request one, and a majority vote of the board. The annual meeting can't slip past thirteen months, board meetings need 48 hours' public notice, and every owner has the statutory right to attend and speak at open meetings. These aren't aspirations; they're the text.

What New Mexico gives owners

On money and enforcement, the Act is candid in both directions. The association holds a lien on your lot for assessments and fines from the moment they come due, perfected by the recorded declaration itself, and it can foreclose that lien in like manner as a mortgage — which in New Mexico means a judicial action, through the courts. But the same section obligates the association to hand you a recordable statement of your unpaid balance within ten business days of a written request, the budget must go to all owners within thirty days of adoption alongside a statement of every fee and fine the association may charge, and an independent CPA must audit, review, or compile the books at least every three years with results to owners within thirty days. Selling? The buyer must receive a disclosure certificate at least seven days before closing and can cancel within seven days of receiving it.

Governance power is checked concretely. Unless your community documents set their own removal process, owners can remove a board member by a two-thirds vote of those present and entitled to vote at a quorum meeting. Votes must be castable in person, by absentee ballot, or by proxy; contested-election ballots must be counted by a neutral third party or a volunteer committee that excludes board members and candidates; and nobody may pay a person or company to collect proxies. Executive sessions are limited to legal advice, litigation, and personal or financial information about individuals — everything else happens in front of you, in a meeting you have the right to speak at.