New Mexico
New Mexico law requires meth house disclosures | Column
When Eddie and Eva Bloor purchased their Cowlitz County, Wash., home in 2004, they had no idea the house had been used for methamphetamine production. Neither the sellers nor the real estate brokers disclosed to the Bloors that toxic chemicals had been found at the residence.
The newly minted homeowners were shocked when the local health department caught wind that the property was contaminated and deemed it unfit for occupancy. The Bloors were ordered to immediately vacate the residence and not remove any of their personal belongings due to the risk of cross contamination. They left with only the clothes on their backs and had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to relocate and replace virtually everything they owned.
Due the high cost of moving and replacement of clothing, furniture, electronics, appliances, toothbrushes and who knows what else, the property went into foreclosure. Shortly thereafter, the Bloors filed suit against the agents and former owners. Almost four years passed before the case finally made its way through the judicial process. In the end, the displaced homeowners were compensated for their losses and awarded punitive damages.
While the sellers and brokers were obligated to disclose the existence of the meth lab prior to the sale, the State of Washington had no law on the books that required law enforcement to disclose the existence of toxic chemicals to any persons or agencies. The same was true in New Mexico until Jan. 1, 2008, when a new law took effect requiring law enforcement agencies that bust meth labs to immediately post a warning on the property and notify the owners and/or renters that toxic chemicals were found on the premises.
The law also makes it mandatory for law enforcement agencies to notify the New Mexico Environmental Department’s (NMED’s) Hazardous Waste Bureau, which posts the addresses of the contaminated properties on its website https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/clandestine-drug-laboratories/ until they’ve been cleaned up to the standards outlined in the law. Addresses of properties that were the subject of federal enforcement actions are also listed on the site.
Until full remediation of the problem has been completed and approved by NMED, owners cannot sell, rent or otherwise occupy the property. When the property is ready for the open market, owners are required to disclose in writing to buyers or renters that a meth lab was found on the premises and that full remediation was completed in accordance with the law. Violation of the statute is a criminal misdemeanor and can also result in a civil fine of up to $10,000 per day.
This is not the only housing-related disclosure law on the books. New Mexico law (NMSA 1978 § 47-13-2) says your real estate broker and/or the seller of the home you’re considering purchasing or leasing “shall not be liable for failure to disclose and shall not have a duty to disclose to any person who buys or leases a property that the property was the site of a natural death, a homicide, suicide, assault or sexual assault; that the home was occupied by a person with AIDS or who is HIV positive or that a crime punishable as a felony was committed on the premises”. Such properties are often referred to as “stigmatized”.
Federal law goes even further, making it a crime to disclose that a current or former occupant of a home, mobile home or apartment has or had AIDS or was or is HIV positive.
What about ghosts, you ask? According to a 2013 Harris Poll, 42 percent of us believe that such disembodied spirits exist. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know if any of them inhabit a particular residence unless they themselves decide to tell us.
The State of New Mexico has additional resources that prospective homeowners and tenants can tap to evaluate a property or neighborhood. Soon-to-be occupants can check the New Mexico Sex Offender Registry athttps://sheriffalerts.com/cap_office_disclaimer.php?office=55290&fwd=aHR0cDovL2NvbW11bml0eW5vdGlmaWNhdGlvbi5jb20vY2FwX21haW4ucGhwP29mZmljZT01NTI5MA== to determine if any registered offenders live in the area.
Think a neighbor may be a felon or has been arrested in the past? Homebuyers and renters can determine if such persons live nearby by looking up names of interest on the state’s Judiciary and Court website athttps://caselookup.nmcourts.gov/caselookup/.
Another method of assessing the character of a neighborhood or street is do what the cops do on occasion – stake it out. Drive through the area or park for a while on the street where you intend to reside. Evenings and weekends provide the best opportunity to get a sense of the amount of vehicular traffic, number of toddlers, teenagers, and general personality of the area. It’s also a good idea to speak with a few of the neighbors, some of whom will undoubtedly gossip ‘til your ears begin to melt. Want to dig a bit deeper? Log into the Las Cruces Police Department’s Community Crime Map https://communitycrimemap.com/.
Real estate brokers have to be especially careful about disclosures. How would you like it if the broker you hired to sell or lease your home disclosed a fact about your property, the disclosure of which was not required by law, and the buyer or renter walked away from the transaction? Might the broker be liable for harming you financially by causing the buyer or tenant to head for the hills? According to a couple of Las Cruces area attorneys I asked, the answer is most likely yes.
Speaking of disclosures, here’s one I routinely share with my clients: Be very mindful when purchasing a two-story home… especially if it’s the kind where the agent tells you one story before you buy it and another story after you buy it.
See you at closing.
Gary Sandler is a U.S. Air Force veteran, full-time Realtor and president of Gary Sandler Inc., Realtors in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He loves to answer questions and can be reached at (575) 642-2292 or Gary@GarySandler.com.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Good to moderate air quality will persist in Albuquerque but may be worse in places where wildfires, like the Sacaton Fire, are burning Sunday.
The smoke may be little thicker to the south near the Sacaton fire into Socorro County and near Truth of Consequences. No weather advisories are in effect but we may see some showers and thunderstorms pop up this afternoon. That may mostly be over the eastern and southern counties. The Sacaton Fire might get little rain, which would be relief for the ever-growing fire.
Rain chances in the Albuquerque metro are lower — maybe 10%. We’re more likely to see a shower or storm over the East Mountains or Sandia Mountains later this afternoon.
Storms in eastern New Mexico, closer to Texas, might have some strong winds later. About the same weather is expected Monday. Highs in the 90s both days will trend back to drier and hotter weather later in the week.
By John Miller
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Bob Rodgers once specialized in cave rescues, but since becoming resource officer for New Mexico Search and Rescue in 2011, he has shifted from navigating underground passages to analyzing data that shows, among other things, how often his teams are deployed.
The overall conclusion hasn’t changed: New Mexico’s more than 40 all-volunteer search and rescue teams are being called out less often, even as the total number of incidents requiring their services continues to rise.
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In 2023, for example, search and rescue teams responded to about 76% of 149 incidents involving people who were lost or injured in remote areas.
That rate has trended downward in recent years, despite a slight uptick last year: Teams responded to 50% of 187 incidents in 2024, 55% of 191 incidents in 2025 and just 40% of 75 incidents as of June 10 this year.
“Throughout the state of New Mexico, the volunteers are being called less and less to participate in search and rescue incidents,” Rodgers said. “Fire departments, county sheriffs, feel they can do it without us, and if they get into a problem, they’re waiting two or three hours, if not days, before they finally realize they needed SAR.”
As the law enforcement arm of the Department of Public Safety, New Mexico State Police can deploy search and rescue teams when circumstances require. But Rodgers said county and local law enforcement agencies, which are often first on the scene, can be reluctant to request state assistance.
He cited the case of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William McCasland, who disappeared from his Albuquerque home in late February, as a recent example.
” The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office didn’t call for search and rescue until two days after his report was overdue,” Rodgers said. “We don’t know where he’s at, and by the time we’re called in, it’s too late.”
McCasland has not been found.
Rodgers said any delay in mobilizing the proper resources for a missing person search can significantly reduce the chances of a successful outcome.
Similar concerns have surfaced elsewhere in New Mexico.
In March, Taos Search and Rescue President Delinda VanneBrightyn said the Taos County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately contact the Department of Public Safety to dispatch volunteers after two teenagers became trapped at the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge.
“We had a very hard time getting search and rescue involved,” she said.
Taos County Sheriff Steve Miera was unavailable for comment, but he has previously said he wants to train his deputies in search and rescue techniques. For years, he and his staff have overseen responses at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the site of numerous suicides, as well as missing person cases in the rare instances when bodies could not be located.
Still, law enforcement can benefit from search and rescue’s specialized expertise, said VanneBrightyn, who has volunteered for more than 20 years and specializes in K-9 search and rescue.
“We should be having many more missions,” VanneBrightyn said. “The sheriffs are now doing this across the state.”
A 2025 amendment to the state Search and Rescue Act requiring first responders to notify state police when a call involves “lost, stranded, entrapped or injured persons” took effect earlier this year. But state data suggests volunteer teams continue to be underused in 2026.
In some cases, declining mission numbers have caused all-volunteer teams to lose members, as volunteers find the hours they devote to training are rarely put to use.
“It has been frustrating because the sheriff doesn’t have the resources, the trained resources that we have,” VanneBrightyn said. “They are law enforcement.”
The decline in search and rescue missions in New Mexico dates to 1996, when there were 191 missions involving 4,004 personnel and 22,602 hours in the field. Rodgers said, however, that the state’s older data is less reliable than more recent records.
Speaking to the Journal last week about the state’s ephemeral waters running dry, Grant County Search and Rescue President Russ Imler said the decline in missions may also relate to more advanced wayfinding technologies, like Garmins and smartphones.
“The electronics that people carry nowadays, people aren’t getting as lost,” he said.
Meanwhile, some studies showed that search and rescue missions rose elsewhere at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2021 study by a Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and a 2022 story by PBS News Hour both concluded that missions were creeping upward as more Americans re-entered the outdoors.
When search and rescue services are needed in the Land of Enchantment, Rodgers said trained teams can provide expertise law enforcement agencies usually don’t have — like advanced land navigation, wilderness survival and technical rope rescue skills.
They also often save hours of overtime pay and other public expenses accrued by paid law enforcement, he added.
“It doesn’t cost the taxpayers a whole lot of money,” he said, adding, “I can put 30 people on a mountain someplace and leave them there, and we are self-sufficient. We run at least 24 hours without support from anybody, and it costs me — the state of New Mexico — about $200 to run a mission. I’m not paying salary. I’m not giving them overtime. I’m not even providing them food.”
A Clinton volunteer firefighter aboard his personal boat safely removed all occupants from a smoking 42-foot vessel south of Duck Island
Retired Baltimore County Fire Capt. Jhett Lewis has flown a large American flag in memory of a family friend killed in Vietnam and to honor those who served
Imperial Beach officials say a 25% vacancy rate and a nearly 50% increase in call volume over the past decade have forced firefighters to work up to 10 days at a time
Loveland Rural Fire Protection District President Paul Bukowski said he has no plans to resign as critics cite transparency and leadership concerns
© 2026 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.).
Visit www.abqjournal.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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