A genuinely early adopter: 2001
New Mexico first enacted a transfer-on-death deed law in 2001, codified originally at NMSA § 45-6-401, making it one of the earlier states in the country to authorize this kind of deed — years before many other states adopted anything similar.
Torn down and rebuilt: 2013, effective 2014
Rather than simply amending the original 2001 law over time, the New Mexico Legislature took a more dramatic approach in 2013: it fully repealed and re-enacted the entire statute, adopting the newer, more developed Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act in its place. This rewritten law became effective January 1, 2014, and is codified at NMSA §§ 45-6-401 through 45-6-417. This wholesale repeal-and-reenactment, rather than a simple amendment, is itself a distinctive piece of New Mexico's legislative history on this topic — the state didn't just tweak its early law, it replaced it entirely with the more modern uniform framework.
Reaching back to cover older deeds
The 2014 law specifically applies to a transfer on death deed made before, on, or after January 1, 2014, as long as the transferor dies on or after that date. This means someone who signed a TOD deed under the original 2001 version of the law still has that deed governed by the newer 2014 framework, as long as they're still alive (or die after) the 2014 effective date.
Simple execution: notary only
An individual transferor signs and acknowledges the deed before a notary or another authorized acknowledgment officer; no witnesses are required. The capacity needed to make or revoke the deed is the same capacity required to make a will. The deed must be recorded before the transferor's death in the public records of every county where the property is located, with no fixed deadline between signing and recording.
Revocable, but not by physical cancellation or a will
A New Mexico TOD deed remains revocable at all times before death, even if the deed itself says otherwise. Revocation requires recording, before death, a later-acknowledged TOD deed, an express instrument of revocation, or an inter vivos deed that expressly revokes the earlier TOD deed. Physical cancellation of the document and a will both fail to revoke it — only a proper recorded instrument accomplishes that.
Joint owners must all revoke together
Where a TOD deed was made by joint owners, all of the living joint owners must revoke it together for the revocation to be effective — one joint owner acting alone can't unilaterally undo a deed the group created together.
Joint ownership still comes first
A joint owner's TOD deed yields to the surviving joint owners and works only if that owner turns out to be the last survivor of the property. See our guide to New Mexico community property and joint tenancy rules for how that underlying co-ownership question gets decided — including the distinctive way New Mexico can classify married couples' joint tenancy property as community property too.