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Your rights

New Mexico

New Mexico · home improvement

Your rights in New Mexico

Information, not legal adviceRules checked Oct 4, 2026

3 business days to cancel

If you agree away from their office ($25+)

Cancel in writing by midnight of the third business day (Saturday counts). Money back within 10 business days.

Some sales are excepted, such as emergency work you ask for in a signed waiver.

The 4 exceptions, in the rule's words
  • The sale follows earlier negotiations during your visit to the seller's permanent retail location, where the goods or services are offered on a continuing basis.
  • A bona fide immediate personal emergency: you started the contract and gave the seller a separate signed and dated statement in your own handwriting that describes the emergency and waives the 3-day right to cancel.
  • You started the contract and asked the seller to visit your home to repair or maintain your personal property. Extra goods or services sold during that visit, other than replacement parts used in the repair, are still covered.
  • Transactions in which you already have a right of rescission under the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1635).
Read the full rule

When it applies

A door-to-door sale of $25 or more: the seller personally asked for the sale (even if you invited them) and you agreed to buy somewhere other than the seller's place of business, such as your home. Sales started by the seller over the phone count too. Saturday counts as a business day; Sunday and legal holidays do not.

If a seller asked for the sale and you agreed to it away from the seller's place of business (for example at your home, or on a call the seller started), you can cancel in writing until midnight of the third business day after the transaction. Saturday counts; Sunday does not. The seller must refund your payments within 10 business days of getting your notice.

New Mexico Statutes · read on nmonesource.com · checked Oct 4, 2026 (official source, opens in a new tab)

License number

On written bids and permits

Contractors need a Construction Industries Division license that covers the type of work, such as GB-2 for remodeling.

Read the full rule

A New Mexico contractor must hold a Construction Industries Division license that covers the type of work, for example GB-2 for home building and remodeling, or a separate electrical, plumbing or HVAC license. The license number must be on every written bid. Look up the license through CID before you sign.

Who needs one: Anyone who undertakes, offers to undertake (by bid or otherwise) or claims to be able to undertake, personally or through others, building, altering, repairing, installing or demolishing a building or other structure, or heating, air-conditioning, electrical wiring, plumbing, gas piping, gas appliance or water conditioner work. Subcontractors and specialty contractors are included. The license must be classified for the type of work, for example GB-2 Residential, EE-98 or ER-1 electrical, MM-1 plumbing, MM-3 HVAC, or a GS specialty such as GS-21 roofing. For home work, the only dollar-based exceptions are the $7,200-a-year handyman exemption and agency weatherization projects up to $2,000.

Who doesn't

  • A handyman: an individual doing casual, minor or inconsequential work, one project at a time, worth no more than $7,200 in total a year, that is not part of a larger job, who does not advertise as a contractor and files a yearly declaration with CID. This never covers installing, connecting or repairing electrical wiring, plumbing or gas fitting.
  • A homeowner building or working on the single-family home they own and live in, or will live in, alone or with paid employees. The work must still meet state codes.
  • Individuals who work only for wages (employees).
  • Suppliers who only deliver materials to the site without installing them.
  • Weatherization projects of $2,000 or less that a federal or state agency has approved and administers.

Where the number must appear

  • written bids
  • building permit applications

Issued by: Construction Industries Division (CID), New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department

New Mexico Statutes · read on nmonesource.com · checked Oct 4, 2026 (official source, opens in a new tab)

The contract must include

Source: NM law

An estimate isn't the contract. Ask for all 6 in writing before you sign.

  • License & bond disclosureBefore you sign or pay anything: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Before work starts, before a contract is signed and before you pay anything, the contractor must give you a written disclosure, on a form approved by the Construction Industries Division, that the contractor's license and bond do not protect you if the contractor defaults.

  • License # on every bid: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Show the contractor's license number clearly on every written bid.

  • A copy in the pitch's languageDoor-to-door sales: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    For a door-to-door sale: give you a completed copy of the contract or receipt when you sign. It must be in the same language used in the sales pitch and show the date and the seller's name and address.

  • 3-day cancel statementDoor-to-door sales: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    For a door-to-door sale: state next to your signature, in bold type of at least 10 point, that you may cancel before midnight of the third business day.

  • Two cancel forms attachedDoor-to-door sales: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    For a door-to-door sale: attach two copies of a 'Notice of Cancellation' form, filled in with the seller's name and address, the date of the transaction and the last day you can cancel.

  • No waiver of cancel rightsDoor-to-door sales: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    For a door-to-door sale: contain no confession of judgment and no waiver of your right to cancel. The seller must also tell you out loud about your right to cancel.

On signing day

  • Keep a signed copy
  • Find the cancel notice
Sources18 official pages · checked Oct 4, 2026

Notes from our check

  • Statutes were read on nmonesource.com, the New Mexico Compilation Commission's official site, from the chapter PDFs it serves (index pages read 'Website last modified: 10/02/2026'). Each URL opens a whole chapter: Chapter 57 has Section 57-12-21 (door-to-door sales), Chapter 60 has the Construction Industries Licensing Act (Sections 60-13-3, 60-13-12, 60-13-19, 60-13-49, 60-13-59), and Chapter 76 has Sections 76-4-3 and 76-4-17. The unannotated Chapter 57 and 60 PDFs are dated 2025-06-20. The annotated Chapter 60 PDF (dated 2026-09-24) and Chapter 76 PDF (dated 2026-07-01) show no 2026 amendment to the sections used. The annotated Chapter 57 PDF is also dated 2025-06-20 (57-12-21 last amended 2019), so a 2026-session change to 57-12-21, if any, would not appear there; nmlegis.gov was not checked.
  • No deposit cap: no general limit on deposits or down payments for residential home improvement contracts was found in NMSA Chapter 60 Article 13 (the Construction Industries Licensing Act), NMSA Chapter 57 (including the Unfair Practices Act, 57-12), the CID rules read (14.5.1, 14.5.8, 14.6.2, 14.6.3 and 14.6.6 NMAC), or 12.2 NMAC on srca.nm.gov (parts 1 to 14 are the Attorney General's consumer rules, none about home improvement; part 8 did not load; parts 15 to 18 are RLD recycled-metals rules). depositCap is null. The app must not state a New Mexico cap or infer one from another state.
  • The New Mexico Department of Justice site (nmdoj.gov) returns HTTP 403 to plain automated requests but loaded with ordinary browser headers on 2026-10-04. Its Consumer Affairs and scam-prevention pages contain no home improvement, contractor, deposit or cancellation guidance. The cancellation right was read directly from the statute text (NMSA 57-12-21).
  • Cancellation is New Mexico's own door-to-door sales rule (NMSA 57-12-21), not the federal FTC rule. It covers only door-to-door sales of $25 or more (the price includes interest and service charges), including sales the seller starts by phone. It does not cover a contract you agree to at the seller's place of business. For a phone sale the seller started, the 3 days do not begin until you have been told about the right and given the notice copies. The seller also may not sell or assign your note to a finance company before midnight of the fifth business day.
  • Under 57-12-21 a business day is every calendar day except Sunday and listed state and federal holidays, so Saturday counts. The refund deadline is 10 business days, not calendar days, after the seller gets your cancellation notice. refundWithinDays holds 10, and the plain text says business days.
  • The statute also excludes sales or rentals of real property, insurance, securities or commodities sold by registered broker-dealers, and certain rental-purchase agreements. These are left out of the exceptions list as not relevant to home improvement. The repair-visit exception refers to repairing or maintaining the buyer's 'personal property'. The statute does not say whether a repair to the house itself counts, so the app should not tell a homeowner that inviting a contractor for a repair removes the right to cancel.
  • No New Mexico statute was found that requires home improvement contracts in general to be in writing or that lists what they must contain. The contractMust items come from 60-13-19, which covers all residential contracting (the CID default disclosure and the license number on written bids), and from 57-12-21, which covers door-to-door sales only. The door-to-door items are labeled that way.
  • License number: 60-13-19(A) requires it on all written bids and when applying for a building permit. 60-13-59 requires the building permit, posted at the job site, to show the general contractor's name, address and license number. The statute does not say in so many words that the number must be on the contract.
  • Bond: the $10,000 license bond (60-13-49) pays only to cure code violations that CID certifies and the licensee does not correct. CID's investigation page says it cannot handle financial or contractual disputes unless a court has entered a judgment, and that it cannot help recover financial losses. This matches the required written disclosure that the license and bond do not protect the consumer if the contractor defaults.
  • Handyman exemption: 60-13-3(D)(14) and 14.6.2.8 NMAC set the limit at $7,200 a year, one project at a time, with a yearly declaration filed with CID. The work cannot be part of a larger job, the person cannot advertise as a contractor, and the exemption never covers electrical wiring, plumbing or gas fitting.
  • Slugs left out of both trade lists because the official pages read do not settle whether every contractor in that trade needs a statewide CID license: 14.6.6 NMAC names no classification for the trade, or one covering only part of it, and CID issues a case-by-case GS-29 license for unlisted specialties it regulates. They are painting, flooring, carpentry (framing alone is GS-13), fencing (CID's FAQ says fences need no permit but block walls do; GS-16 masonry covers freestanding walls six feet or higher), outdoor landscaping (lawn sprinklers are MS-6 and earthmoving is GS-8), window treatments, garage doors, chimney and fireplace (GS-21 roofing and GS-32 sheet metal include prefabricated chimneys; MM-2 includes chimney connections and flues), foundation and waterproofing (GS-1 includes waterproof membranes and coatings; GS-15 covers piers and caissons), smart home (low-voltage systems of 50 volts or less are ES-3), appliance repair, locksmith, home inspection, restoration, environmental testing and junk removal.
  • septic-well: septic systems need a CID MS-3 license. Drilling water wells is outside the Construction Industries Licensing Act (60-13-3(D)(2)), but anyone who drills wells needs a well driller's license from the Office of the State Engineer (19.27.4.8 NMAC). The only exception is driven wells with an outside casing of 2 3/8 inches or less that need no drill rig. Well-pump electrical work has its own CID classifications (ES-10R and ES-10).
  • Sources not on a .gov/.us/legislature domain were cited alongside the official ones: https://nmonesource.com/nmos/nmsa-unanno/en/item/18560/index.do; https://nmonesource.com/nmos/nmsa-unanno/en/item/18563/index.do; https://nmonesource.com/nmos/nmsa-unanno/en/item/18579/index.do

General information from official New Mexico sources. For your situation, ask the state's consumer protection office or a lawyer.

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