New Mexico tax sale statutes

The governing law

New Mexico is a tax deed state, and the sale is run by the state rather than by counties. County treasurers bill and collect, but once real property taxes have been delinquent for more than two years the treasurer lists the parcel on the county's tax delinquency list by July 1 and transfers the account to the Taxation and Revenue Department, which then holds exclusive authority to collect it. The department's Property Tax Division may sell the property once three years have passed from the first delinquency date on that list, and must offer it within four. It sells at an oral public auction held in the county where the land lies, either itself or through an auctioneer it hires, to the highest bidder at or above a minimum price that can never be less than the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs. Payment in full is due before the auction closes. No tax lien certificate is ever sold to an investor, there is no right of redemption after the sale, and the deed conveys the former owner's interest subject to perfected interests that existed before the January 1 tax lien date. The former owner has two years from the sale to challenge the conveyance in court.