Housing Laws

If you are a tenant and allow someone into your rented home, and this person does something that is a “substantial violation” of your rental agreement, the landlord may be able to evict you after giving a three-day notice about this violation.¹ However, if you’re a victim of domestic violence, and the person who committed a substantial violation is the abuser, you have a defense against eviction.

If you have a temporary or extended domestic violence protection order, the judge cannot order your eviction based on the abuser’s actions in the rental home. You may have the protection order because of what the abuser did, which was a substantial violation of the lease, or because of past abuse.²

If you don’t have a protection order, you can still tell the judge about the domestic violence. Then it will be up to the judge to decide whether or not to evict you.²

Note: In New Mexico, an eviction order is called a “writ of restitution.”³

¹ N.M. Stat. § 47-8-33(I)
² N.M. Stat. § 47-8-33(J)
³ See N.M. Stat. § 47-8-46