A. A person owning real property that is subject to property taxation under the Property Tax Code [Chapter 7, Articles 35 through 38 NMSA 1978] may file for record in the office of the county clerk of the county where the real property is located a legal description or a plat of the real property. The legal description or plat shall be acknowledged and shall be certified by a professional surveyor licensed in the state.

B. The United States, the state or its political subdivisions and any agency, department or instrumentality of the United States, the state or its political subdivisions may file for record in the office of the county clerk of the county where the real property is located a legal description or a plat of real property. The legal description or plat shall be acknowledged and shall be certified by a professional surveyor licensed in the state and shall show the governmental agency, department or political subdivision under whose supervision and direction the description or plat was prepared.

C. The county clerk shall number descriptions filed under this section consecutively and shall number plats filed under this section consecutively. Immediately upon receiving a description or plat for filing, the county clerk shall note on the instrument the filing number, the date and the time of filing and shall make proper entries in the reception book and in the index to general real estate records.

D. The county clerk shall record all descriptions and plats in the same manner as other similar instruments affecting real property are recorded. The county clerk shall charge a fee as provided for in Section 14-8-15 NMSA 1978 for recording documents in the office of the county clerk.

E. If the county clerk has the appropriate technology, the clerk shall record the plat electronically, return the original to the person who submitted the plat and forward an electronic copy to the county assessor. Otherwise, all plats to be recorded shall be filed in duplicate with the county clerk. One copy shall be recorded by the county clerk, and one copy shall be delivered by the county clerk to the county assessor.

History: 1953 Comp., § 71-1-14, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 258, § 150; 1989, ch. 106, § 1; 1994, ch. 28, § 2; 1995, ch. 26, § 2; 2002, ch. 97, § 2; 2011, ch. 134, § 15.

The 2011 amendment, effective July 1, 2011, required legal descriptions and plats to be acknowledged; eliminated the former list of fees for recording legal descriptions and plats and imposed the fees provided in Section 14-8-15 NMSA 1978; and required county clerks to record plats electronically if the technology is available.

The 2002 amendment, effective May 15, 2002, in the last sentence of Subsection E, raised the maximum equipment recording fee and deleted an exception for class A counties.

The 1995 amendment, effective June 16, 1995, in the second sentence of Subsection F, inserted "rent" and "lease or lease-purchase" and added the language beginning "and for staff" at the end of the sentence.

The 1994 amendment, effective May 18, 1994, substituted "shall" for "must" throughout the second sentences in Subsections A and B, inserted Subsections E to G, and redesignated former Subsection E as Subsection H.

The 1989 amendment, effective June 16, 1989, substituted "certified by a professional surveyor licensed in the state" for "certified as being correct by a professional engineer or land surveyor licensed in the state and the certification must be properly acknowledged" in the second sentence of Subsections A and B.