New Mexico Surplus Funds Laws
How mortgage foreclosure surplus, tax sale surplus and unclaimed funds work in New Mexico.
Mortgage foreclosure surplus
New Mexico mortgage foreclosure is judicial. The foreclosure judgment and court-supervised sale govern distribution of proceeds; N.M. Stat. Ann. §§ 39-5-17–19 concern timing and redemption, not a standalone surplus-distribution procedure. No general post-sale surplus filing period appears in §§ 39-5-17–19. Request payment through the foreclosure court under its judgment and order. The usual nine-month period in § 39-5-18 is for redeeming the property, not claiming surplus cash.
Tax sale surplus
N.M. Stat. Ann. § 7-38-71(A)–(B) directly requires the Taxation and Revenue Department to pay the balance of a delinquent-property tax sale to the former owner or another court-designated person after statutory taxes, penalties, interest and costs. Under § 7-38-71(C), if no former owner claims within two years of the sale and the department cannot find the owner after a reasonable search, the balance becomes abandoned property under the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.
Unclaimed funds
New Mexico Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (1995), N.M. Stat. Ann. §§ 7-8A-1–31; § 7-8A-15 governs claims to the Taxation and Revenue Department. Section 7-8A-15 sets no fixed general initial owner-claim cutoff. The department generally has 90 days to allow or deny a filed claim; that is its response deadline.
Statute text
Links to the statutes referenced in our research. These may be third-party copies of older code editions, so check the current official code before relying on them.
