Landlord Atlas

Can a landlord charge for a pet in New Mexico, and what does the law require for an assistance animal?

Verified September 21, 2026 All New Mexico topics →

New Mexico has no pet law at all: no pet-deposit statute, no pet-rent or pet-fee statute, no breed rule for rentals, and no state assistance-animal rule that reaches housing.

Cited to NMSA 1978 §§ 47-8-3, 47-8-9, 47-8-14, 47-8-18, 47-8-19.1 to 47-8-19.4 and 47-8-23 (Chapter 47, Property Law) 47-8-3(F), (K), (P), (Q); 47-8-9; 47-8-14; 47-8-18(A)-(E); 47-8-19.1; 47-8-19.2(A)(5); 47-8-19.3(A); 47-8-19.4; 47-8-23(A)-(F) and 10 more cited sources · Verified September 21, 2026

A pet deposit is simply a deposit, so on a lease of less than a year it has to fit inside the one month's rent a landlord may hold in total, while on an annual lease there is no ceiling and the only consequence of holding more than a month's rent is a duty to pay passbook interest on it. Pet rent and a one-time pet fee are uncapped, but since June 20, 2025 they must be itemized in the published listing and written into the rental agreement, they may not be collected as an application fee, raising them takes sixty days' written notice, and breaking those rules is an unfair or deceptive trade practice. The state's two animal statutes cover public buildings, public accommodations and common carriers, not dwellings, and the Human Rights Act's duty to accommodate a disability is written for employers, so a tenant's rights for an assistance animal come from federal law. Knowingly presenting an animal as a qualified service animal when it is not is a misdemeanor carrying up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail; the section names no place, but no New Mexico court has said whether it reaches a claim made to a landlord. Cities and counties, not the state, regulate dogs.

New Mexico pets & assistance animals at a glance

Which law governs New Mexico has no pet law, so the answers come from general statutes. The money and lease rules are the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act, Chapter 47 article 8 of the statutes: the definitions of deposit and rent in section 47-8-3, the deposit section 47-8-18, the freedom-of-contract section 47-8-14, the rules-and-regulations section 47-8-23, and the fee sections added in 2025 at sections 47-8-19.1 through 47-8-19.4, backed by the unfair practices section 57-12-27. Mobile home park lots are the Mobile Home Park Act, Chapter 47 article 10. The two animal statutes are the Service Animal Act, Chapter 28 article 11, and the White Cane Law, Chapter 28 article 7, and both are written for public places rather than dwellings; the Human Rights Act, Chapter 28 article 1, forbids housing discrimination on the basis of disability but its accommodation duty is written for employers. Local power over animals comes from section 3-18-3 and Chapter 77 article 1.
Where in the state the answers differ Two thresholds change the answer inside the state. The deposit cap turns on the length of the lease: under a rental agreement of less than one year a landlord may not demand or receive deposits of more than one month's rent in total, while under an annual agreement there is no ceiling at all and the only consequence of taking more than one month's rent is a duty to pay passbook interest on it each year (section 47-8-18, subsection (A)). And the state fair-housing duty drops away entirely in a building with no more than four families living independently where the owner actually maintains and occupies one of the units as a residence (section 28-1-9, subsection (D)); the separate single-family exemption in the same section is limited on its face to other protected classes and does not reach a disability claim.
Which landlords are covered Every residency under the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act. There is no unit-count threshold and no owner-occupied exemption from the money and lease rules. The Act excludes six arrangements rather than six kinds of landlord, and only where they were not created to avoid the Act: residence at an institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, counseling, religious or educational service; occupancy under a contract of sale; quarters in a fraternal or social organization; transient occupancy in a hotel or motel; an employee's occupancy under a written agreement conditioned on employment; and occupancy used primarily for agricultural purposes (section 47-8-9). Mobile home park lots are governed by their own act, with the Owner-Resident Relations Act applying except where the park act directly conflicts; the park rules are a separate row below. The state fair-housing duty has its own narrower reach, stated above.
Pet deposit

Yes — no pet figure exists, but a pet deposit is a security deposit however it is named and counts inside the general deposit cap.

No New Mexico statute mentions a pet deposit. The general rule catches it anyway, because a deposit means an amount delivered to the owner by the resident as a pledge to abide by the terms of the rental agreement (section 47-8-3, subsection (F)), which is what refundable pet money is, whatever the lease calls it. So on a lease of less than a year the pet portion has to fit inside the same one month's rent as everything else, and on an annual lease there is no ceiling for it to fit inside. Two claims a reader will meet elsewhere are wrong: the one-month figure is not a pet cap, it is the total deposit cap, and it does not apply to the commonest lease term of one year. Nothing in the Act exempts an assistance animal from a deposit, because New Mexico has no assistance-animal rule for housing at all.

Refundability: Refundable, on the ordinary terms. A deposit may be applied only to unpaid rent and to damage the landlord has suffered from the tenant's noncompliance, and none of it may be kept for normal wear and tear, a term the Act defines and which expressly does not cover uncleanliness. An itemized written list of deductions and the balance are due within thirty days of the end of the rental agreement or of the tenant's departure, whichever is later; a landlord who does not provide the statement loses the right to withhold anything, to counterclaim and to bring a separate damages action, and owes costs and fees. Bad-faith retention carries a $250 civil penalty (section 47-8-18, subsections (C) to (E)).

The general deposit cap it sits against: Under a rental agreement of less than one year, no deposit in excess of one month's rent may be demanded or received, counting everything the landlord holds (section 47-8-18, subsection (A)(2)). Under an annual agreement there is no ceiling, and the only consequence of holding more than one month's rent is that the landlord must pay the tenant annual interest at the passbook rate on the deposit (subsection (A)(1)). The deposit itself must be reasonable. The security-deposits page carries the return rules.

Where the rule switches off or on: The one-month ceiling applies only to a rental agreement of a duration less than one year. An annual lease has no ceiling (section 47-8-18, subsection (A)).
Pet rent and pet fees

Yes — no statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee.

No statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee, and no reasonableness standard attaches to either. Since June 20, 2025 four general rules govern how they may be charged, none of which names a pet. Every cost of a rental agreement must be disclosed to applicants in plain language in the published listing, including the base rent and a description of all fees or charges that will be assessed during the residency, itemized and readily identifiable (section 47-8-19.1). No fee beyond the $50 screening fee may be charged to process an application. Raising a fee takes sixty days' written notice. And charging an applicant a fee that is neither a screening fee nor a deposit, or that was not published in the listing, and charging fees that are not included in the rental agreement, are each an unfair or deceptive trade practice (section 57-12-27, subsections (B) and (C)), for which the remedy is actual damages or $100, whichever is greater, trebled or $300 on a willful violation, with attorney fees and costs to a prevailing complainant.

Monthly pet rent: Monthly pet rent is permitted and uncapped. Because it is a fee provided under the terms of the rental agreement, raising it requires at least sixty days' written notice before the periodic rental date, or before the end of a fixed term, and in a periodic residency of less than a month, one rental period's notice (section 47-8-19.4).

A one-time pet fee: A one-time pet fee, refundable or not, is permitted and uncapped as to amount. New Mexico has no general bar on non-refundable fees. What it may not be is an application charge: the screening fee is capped at $50 and a landlord may not charge any other fee to process an application (section 47-8-19.2, subsection (A)(5)), so there is no lawful pre-lease pet application fee.
Pet policy in the lease, and changing it mid-tenancy

No — but a written-rules or mid-term-change provision would govern a pet rule the landlord adopts.

Nothing in New Mexico law requires a lease to state a pet policy, supplies a default when the lease is silent, or limits the number or species of animals. The parties may include any terms not prohibited by the Act or another rule of law (section 47-8-14), so a pet restriction exists only if it is in the rental agreement or in validly adopted rules. What does exist is an advertising duty rather than a lease-content duty: every fee or charge assessed during the residency, pet money included, must be itemized and readily identifiable in the published listing (section 47-8-19.1), and that duty attaches before any lease exists. No New Mexico program requires publicly financed or income-restricted housing to allow pets. In a mobile home park, pets that already comply with the park's rules are protected against later rules that would prohibit them, which is stated as its own row below.

Changing the rule mid-tenancy: Section 47-8-23. An owner may adopt rules or regulations, however described, about the resident's use and occupancy of the premises, and they bind the resident only if all six conditions hold: the purpose is to promote the appearance, convenience, safety or welfare of the residents, to preserve the owner's property from abusive use or to distribute services and facilities fairly; they are reasonably related to that purpose; they apply to all residents fairly; they are explicit enough to inform the resident what to do or not do; they are not a way of evading the owner's own obligations; and the resident receives copies at the start and notice of amendments. A rule adopted after the resident signs binds only if reasonable notice of its adoption is given and it does not work a substantial modification of the resident's bargain. A validly adopted rule becomes part of the rental agreement, which matters because a fee not included in the rental agreement is an unfair or deceptive trade practice.
Breed, size and weight restrictions

Yes.

No New Mexico statute or rule limits, authorizes or preempts a breed, size or weight restriction in a tenancy, and there is no assistance-animal exception to carve out of one because the state has no assistance-animal rule for housing. The word breed does not appear as such anywhere in the property chapter, the human rights chapter, the insurance code or the housing title of the administrative code. Breed law in New Mexico is local: municipalities and counties regulate dogs by ordinance, and the Court of Appeals upheld a village ordinance banning a particular breed as a proper exercise of the police power. None of that reaches what a landlord may put in a lease.
Assistance animals: the state instrument and who it binds

No — no state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing; the federal rules alone apply.

New Mexico is one of the few states whose own law says nothing about an assistance animal in a rental. The two animal statutes are written for public places. Under the Service Animal Act a person with a disability using a qualified service animal must be admitted to any building open to the public and to all other public accommodations and given access to all common carriers, without paying an additional charge for the animal, though the user may be liable for damage the animal does on the same terms as anyone else (section 28-11-3). Under the White Cane Law a person who is blind has the right to be accompanied by a specially trained guide dog in streets, public buildings, public places, common carriers, hotels, lodging places and other places to which the general public is invited, without an extra charge, and is liable for damage the dog does (section 28-7-3). A dwelling let under a rental agreement is none of those places. The Human Rights Act makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice to refuse to rent to a person because of a physical or mental disability, or to discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental, where the disability is unrelated to the person's ability to acquire or rent and maintain the property (section 28-1-7, subsection (G)) — but its duty to accommodate a disability binds an employer only, and the Act defines a reasonable accommodation as a change to the work environment, work schedule, work rules or job responsibilities that lets an employee perform the essential functions of a job. The Human Rights Commission's own rules repeat that split. So a reader should not expect to find a New Mexico rule about documentation, about charges or about refusing an animal; the federal section of the 50-state page is where those answers live.

Who it binds: No New Mexico instrument reaches an assistance animal in a rental, so nothing in state law binds a landlord on this question and the answer for every tenant comes from federal law, which the federal section of the 50-state page carries. For completeness, the state fair-housing duty that does exist, which is a duty not to discriminate rather than a duty to accommodate, binds every person except in a building of no more than four families where the owner lives in one of the units, and except for the religious and other exemptions in the same section. The money and lease rules above bind every residency under the Owner-Resident Relations Act.
What counts as an assistance animal No state instrument defines an assistance animal for housing; the federal definitions are the only ones
Documentation a landlord may request, and what a certifier must meet

No state instrument sets a documentation standard; the federal rules alone apply.

New Mexico sets no documentation rule of any kind. No statute or rule says what a landlord may ask, who may write a letter, how long a professional must have treated the person, what an online registration proves, or when an answer is due, and no licensing statute places a duty on a professional who writes one. The only vaccination rule in state law is a municipal dog-licensing condition, and the only fee rule about animals is that no fee may be charged to license a qualified service animal trained to lead a person who is blind, aid a person who is deaf or assist a person with a mobility impairment.
Charges for an assistance animal

Under state law, yes — no state text bars a charge for an assistance animal; the federal rules alone govern it.

No New Mexico statute bars a landlord from charging a pet deposit, pet fee or pet rent for an assistance animal. The state has two no-extra-charge clauses and both are limited to places other than a dwelling: one covers a qualified service animal in buildings open to the public, other public accommodations and common carriers, and the other covers a guide dog in public places, carriers, hotels and lodging places. Neither reaches the relationship between a landlord and a tenant. A tenant's protection against such a charge comes from federal law, which the federal section of the 50-state page carries.
Damage caused by an assistance animal No state text addresses damage caused by an assistance animal in housing.
Misrepresenting an assistance animal

An offense or sanction that reaches a misrepresentation made to obtain housing: a misdemeanor, reaching the person claiming the animal. Penalty terms: a fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment in the county jail for a definite term of less than one year, or both, in the judge's discretion (section 31-19-1, subsection (A)). The text names no venue and no court has construed its reach, so it reaches housing by its general words.

A person may not knowingly present as a qualified service animal any animal that does not meet the definition in the Service Animal Act, and doing so is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, up to a year in the county jail, or both (section 28-11-6). The definition it hangs on is narrow: a qualified service animal is a dog or miniature horse trained or being trained to assist a person with a disability, and it expressly does not include a pet, an emotional support animal, a comfort animal or a therapy animal. So the offense reaches a false claim of a trained service animal and not a false claim of an emotional support animal. It reaches the person who presents the animal; New Mexico penalizes no professional who writes a letter and no vendor, and no licensing board has any ground of discipline for one. The section names no place, and no New Mexico court has decided whether it reaches a claim made to a landlord.

Where the words leave the reach open: How far the offense reaches is open. The section itself names no place, while the two other operative sections of the same act are expressly about public places: one is keyed to buildings open to the public, other public accommodations and common carriers, and another says in terms that it does not apply to unrestrained animals on private property not open to the public. The legislature limited the venue where it meant to and did not do so here, which is why the offense is stated as reaching a claim made to a landlord, but no New Mexico court has construed it.

Who enforces it: An ordinary criminal prosecution, sentenced under the general misdemeanor section. Violating any provision of the Service Animal Act is separately a misdemeanor, and both sections preserve any other remedy available at common law or by statute.
Can cities add their own rules

Yes, within the powers state law names in this row.

New Mexico leaves animals to local government and says nothing at all about local pet rules in housing. Municipalities and counties are expressly given animal control power, home rule municipalities have broad legislative power, and the Court of Appeals has refused to read the legislature's silence about related activities as an intention to preempt local action, in a decision upholding a city animal ordinance; an earlier decision upheld a village ordinance banning a particular breed. Three limits belong with that. The delegation is animal control power, not power over what a landlord may charge or write into a lease, and no statute addresses a local pet-charge or pet-policy ordinance either way. The Human Rights Act contains no clause handing fair-housing enforcement to a municipality; the only official statement on the point is an opinion of the Attorney General that the Act does not remove the authority municipalities already have and that a local ordinance may not fall below the state standard. And the separate ban on local rent control sits next door, as stated in its own limb. No New Mexico city or county carries a pet-in-housing rule on this site.

Localities may regulate the keeping or licensing of animals: A municipality may prohibit cruelty to animals, may regulate, restrain and prohibit the running at large of any animal within its boundary, and may provide by ordinance for the impounding and disposition of animals found running at large, and it may contract out those animal control services. Text: NMSA 1978 § 3-18-3 · (A), (C).

Localities may regulate the keeping or licensing of animals, a second instrument: Every municipality and every county must provide by ordinance for the seizure and disposition of dogs and cats running at large, and each may provide by ordinance for the mandatory licensing of dogs over three months old, setting its own license fees, with no fee for a qualified service animal trained to lead a person who is blind, aid a person who is deaf or assist a person with a mobility impairment. Text: NMSA 1978 §§ 77-1-12 and 77-1-15.1 · 77-1-12; 77-1-15.1(A)-(C).

Another express grant: A municipality that adopts a charter may exercise all legislative powers and perform all functions not expressly denied to charter municipalities by general law or by the charter, and the powers of municipalities are to be construed liberally to provide for maximum local self-government. Text: NMSA 1978 § 3-15-13 · (B).

Local rent control barred: No political subdivision and no home rule municipality may enact an ordinance or resolution that controls, or would have the effect of controlling, rental rates for privately owned real property, with a carve-out for publicly assisted property. That is a rent-control preemption rather than a pet rule, and no New Mexico authority says whether a local limit on pet rent would fall inside it. The rent-increase page carries the section. Text: NMSA 1978 § 47-8A-1 · (A), (C).
Housing classes with their own pet rule Mobile home park lots: pet deposit — counts inside the general deposit cap; the written-rules or mid-term-change section governs a pet rule. A park owner may charge a security deposit of no more than one month's rent, or two months' rent for a multiwide unit (section 47-10-8), and a pet deposit counts inside that figure the same way it counts inside the ordinary one. A park owner may not charge an entry fee as a condition of tenancy, but the exception list preserves incidental charges for services actually performed or agreed to in writing by the tenant, so a pet fee written into the lot agreement is not an unlawful entry fee (section 47-10-10). New Mexico sets no park pet figure. On policy, the park act protects animals already there: existing pets that comply with the park's rules are exempt from any later rule that would prohibit them, unless they are a nuisance violating the public peace, health or safety, and new or amended park rules take sixty days' notice with a thirty-day comment period (section 47-10-15.1). The manufactured-home page carries the park's other rules. Text: NMSA 1978 §§ 47-10-8, 47-10-10 and 47-10-15.1 · 47-10-8; 47-10-10(A)-(B); 47-10-15.1(A)-(C).
Insurance and dog breeds No statute restricts an insurer's use of dog breed in underwriting
How state law refers to the federal rules State law adds nothing to, and refers to nothing in, the federal rules
Changes already signed into law No signed act is waiting to change these answers
Leading court decisions None carried — the answers rest on the statutes and rules cited

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, New Mexico Pet & Assistance Animal Laws (verified September 21, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/pets/new-mexico/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

New Mexico assistance-animal documentation at a glance

No state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing, so no row below is a state rule; the federal rules further down this page are the only ones. The full text of each slot, with its section, is in the table above.

Slot What the state's text says
Who may certify, and on what test Not stated
The certifier's minimum relationship period Not stated
Telehealth Not stated
Online registration or certificate Not stated
Form Not stated
Medical records Not stated
Written answer from the landlord Not stated
Annual re-evaluation Not stated
Proof of vaccination or licensing Not stated

Housing classes in New Mexico with their own pet rule

Each row is a housing class whose own instrument sets at least one pet cell differently from the private-market answers above; a dash is a cell the class's instrument does not set, so the residential answer on this page does not carry over to it either way. The full text of each row is in the table above.

Class Pet deposit Pet rent and fees In the lease Breed, size, weight Extra charge for an assistance animal From
Mobile home park lots Counts inside the general deposit cap — Written-rules section governs — — —

Federal law on pets and assistance animals, in every state

The federal layer for the pets and assistance-animals topic, carried once for the whole site. It is a dated history rather than a single rule: the Fair Housing Act's accommodation duty has not changed since 1988 and the regulation under it has never contained the word animal, while the HUD guidance that most writing on this subject still quotes was withdrawn in September 2025, permanently rescinded in May 2026, and replaced by an enforcement position that governs HUD's own cause determinations and nothing else. Every row names who it binds, and most of the rows that carry real figures bind only federally assisted, public or rural-development housing. No state record restates these rows; a state record says only where its own law references or extends them. Each row below says who it binds before it says what it does. The full text of each row, with its citations, is on the 50-state page.

Notes and caveats

Common questions: New Mexico pets & assistance animals

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

Can a landlord charge a pet deposit in New Mexico, and is there a limit?
Yes — no pet figure exists, but a pet deposit is a security deposit however it is named and counts inside the general deposit cap. No New Mexico statute mentions a pet deposit.
Can a landlord charge pet rent or a non-refundable pet fee in New Mexico?
Yes — no statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee. No statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee, and no reasonableness standard attaches to either.
Does a New Mexico lease have to state a pet policy?
No — but a written-rules or mid-term-change provision would govern a pet rule the landlord adopts. Nothing in New Mexico law requires a lease to state a pet policy, supplies a default when the lease is silent, or limits the number or species of animals.
Can a New Mexico landlord restrict pets by breed, size or weight?
Yes. No New Mexico statute or rule limits, authorizes or preempts a breed, size or weight restriction in a tenancy, and there is no assistance-animal exception to carve out of one because the state has no assistance-animal rule for housing.
Does New Mexico have its own assistance-animal law for rentals?
No — no state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing; the federal rules alone apply. New Mexico is one of the few states whose own law says nothing about an assistance animal in a rental.
What documentation can a New Mexico landlord ask for when a tenant requests an assistance animal?
No state instrument sets a documentation standard; the federal rules alone apply. New Mexico sets no documentation rule of any kind.
Can a New Mexico landlord charge a pet deposit or pet rent for an emotional support animal?
Under state law, yes — no state text bars a charge for an assistance animal; the federal rules alone govern it. No New Mexico statute bars a landlord from charging a pet deposit, pet fee or pet rent for an assistance animal.
What is the penalty for falsely claiming an assistance animal in New Mexico?
An offense or sanction that reaches a misrepresentation made to obtain housing: a misdemeanor, reaching the person claiming the animal. Penalty terms: a fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment in the county jail for a definite term of less than one year, or both, in the judge's discretion (section 31-19-1, subsection (A)).

Citations

How this record was verified: Direct reading of the New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978 in the Compilation Commission's own whole-chapter text, annotations included: Chapter 47 Property Law, Chapter 28 Human Rights, Chapter 3 Municipalities, Chapter 30 Criminal Offenses, Chapter 31 Criminal Procedure, Chapter 57 Trade Practices, Chapter 59A Insurance, Chapter 61 Professional and Occupational Licenses and Chapter 77 Animals and Livestock, each read in full with the credit line and effective-date note of every section this page relies on. The statutory collection is the current one and the publisher's own page was last modified September 18, 2026; because the site prints no current-through line, currency was established a second way, by reading the 2026 session-law volume end to end and every cited section's own credit line. The Administrative Code was read as whole titles from the same publisher: Title 9 Human Rights, Title 14 Housing and Construction and Title 8 Social Services, with the state records center and archives' currency statement that the Code is updated to September 18, 2026 including every rule effective on or before September 10, 2026. The 2025 act that added the rental fee sections was read in its enrolled text from the legislature's own site and matched word for word against the codified sections, as was the 2024 act that amended the Human Rights Act; the 2023 amendment was read in the codified annotation. The legislature's measure lists for the 2025 and 2026 sessions, 1,288 and 790 measures, were read in full and the two adjacent bills were opened in their own text. The official appellate reports were searched for qualified service animal, assistance animal, emotional support animal, pet deposit, pet fee and the misrepresentation section; two decisions were opened and neither carries a holding for this topic, and the Court of Appeals decision on local animal ordinances was read in full in the official reporter. The national opinion archive was searched for New Mexico assistance-animal decisions and returned one public-accommodation case, which is not housing.

What was read to state each absence on this page: