How to Fire Your Property Manager in New Mexico

A step-by-step guide for New Mexico landlords switching property managers, covering the broker trust account rules, the 60-day final accounting, tenant deposits and what to collect before you cut ties.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Repairs that never happen, a statement that never adds up, a tenant who calls you instead of them. Most landlords wait a year too long to make the call.

New Mexico gives you more leverage than you might expect. Anyone managing your rental for pay is a licensed broker, and the Real Estate Commission holds that license over rules about your money and your records.

Here is how to switch without losing a deposit, a tenant or a month of rent.

Step 1. Read your management agreement

Your contract sets the exit. New Mexico Real Estate Commission rules require a written management agreement before a broker acts for you, and that agreement has to disclose every fee charged to you and every tenant fee the brokerage keeps (16.61.24.13 NMAC).

Look for four things.

Notice period. Thirty days' written notice is common.
Termination fee. Some agreements charge one.
Leasing fee clawbacks. Check what you owe for tenants the manager placed.
Assignment. A broker cannot hand your agreement to another firm without your written consent (16.61.24.13 NMAC).

If the manager broke the agreement, you may be able to end it sooner. That is a question for a New Mexico attorney.

Step 2. Send written notice

Put it in writing, by email and by whatever method your agreement names. State the end date, ask for a full handover by that date, and list what you expect back. Step 4 has the list.

Keep the tone flat. You want your records and your money, not an argument.

Step 3. Know the trust account and handover rules

Your manager's qualifying broker has to deposit money belonging to others into a trust account at an acceptable financial institution (16.61.23.8 NMAC). Commingling that money with the brokerage's own, running a deficit, or spending one owner's funds on another owner's property is prohibited (16.61.23.11 NMAC). The qualifying broker is personally responsible for keeping those records (16.61.23.10 NMAC).

Failing to account for or remit money belonging to others within a reasonable time is grounds for suspension or revocation of the license, and so is commingling (NMSA 1978, § 61-29-12).

The handover deadline is 60 days. A final accounting of trust account funds goes to the owner within 60 days of the effective date of termination (16.61.24.12 NMAC). Executed management agreements and signed leases go to you on request, with documents the law restricts (background checks and credit reports) held back.

Trust and custodial records are kept six years, and property management records run six years from the date the agreement ends (16.61.23.10 NMAC). If a document goes missing later, it is supposed to still exist.

If the deadline passes and you are still waiting, file a complaint with the New Mexico Real Estate Commission.

Step 4. Collect everything

Ask for all of it before the end date.

Security deposits for every tenant, with the amount held for each one
The trust account ledger showing rents collected, fees taken and what is still owed to you
Monthly owner statements with beginning balance, deposits by category, disbursements by category and ending balance (16.61.24.12 NMAC)
Signed leases, renewals and addenda
Any move-in condition reports the tenants signed
Tenant contact details and payment history
Open work orders, vendor contacts, invoices and warranties
Keys, fobs, gate remotes and codes
Year-to-date income and expense reports for your taxes

Step 5. Move the security deposits

Tenant deposits sit in the broker's property management trust account, or go to the owner if the management agreement says so and the tenant agreed (16.61.24.11 NMAC). Find out which arrangement yours used before you assume the money is coming.

Once the deposits are yours, New Mexico deposit law is what governs them. There is no statutory escrow requirement on a private landlord, so the money can sit in your own account. Open a separate one anyway.

What does bind you is the rest of § 47-8-18. On a lease under a year the deposit cannot exceed one month's rent. On a lease of a year or more, anything above one month's rent earns the tenant annual interest at the passbook rate. And within 30 days of a tenancy ending you owe an itemized statement of deductions and the balance, mailed to the tenant's last known address. Miss that and you forfeit the deposit and pay the tenant's attorney fees, with a $250 civil penalty for bad faith on top.

Get a written confirmation of each tenant's deposit amount from the old manager. You inherit the 30-day clock with the money.

Step 6. Tell your tenants

Tenants want three answers. Where rent goes now, who to call for repairs, and whether the deposit is safe. Send one dated message covering all three with the day the change takes effect.

New Mexico requires more than courtesy here. Give each tenant in writing the name, address and phone number of the person managing the premises and of the owner or the person authorized to accept service of process. That disclosure has to stay current through a change of manager. Skip it and the tenant is released from the duty to give you notice under the act (§ 47-8-19).

Step 7. Take over the day to day

Line up plumbers and HVAC before you need them. Set up rent collection. Get a maintenance line that answers at 2am. This is the step where landlords end up hiring the next manager, holding a phone that never stops.

Who can manage property for pay in New Mexico

Leasing, renting or offering to lease or rent real estate for someone else, for compensation, is broker activity. Doing it without a license is prohibited (NMSA 1978, § 61-29-1, § 61-29-2).

Two exemptions matter to you. An owner performing those activities on property the owner owns needs no license. Neither do employees of that owner acting in the regular course of managing the owner's property (§ 61-29-2).

So self-managing is clean. Managing a friend's duplex for a fee is not. Unlicensed activity carries a civil penalty and administrative costs (§ 61-29-17.2). If you hire a replacement, check the license first on the New Mexico Real Estate Commission's site and ask who the qualifying broker is, since that is the person holding your money.

Your switching checklist

Read the agreement for notice, fees and clawbacks
Send written notice with a firm end date
Hold the broker to the 60-day final accounting
Collect deposits, ledgers, leases, statements, vendor records and keys
Confirm each tenant's deposit amount in writing and move the money
Update the owner and manager disclosure to every tenant
Tell tenants where to pay and who to call

Switch to Taz

Taz is an AI property manager built for landlords who have been let down before. It answers tenants day and night, routes repairs to vendors, sends rent reminders and keeps every record in one place, for a flat monthly price per door instead of a cut of your rent. See how Taz works.

Where this guide says a state has no rule on something, that means we found no statute setting one, which is not the same as none existing. Local ordinances and court practice can add requirements. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your management agreement and your specific facts matter. Talk to a New Mexico attorney before ending a contract. Last checked September 2026.