# ESA Letter in Hobbs, NM: 300 Days, But Only If It's Perfected

> The statute gives a Hobbs tenant 300 days. The Human Rights Bureau's own rule counts them to a perfected complaint, and returns anything short of one.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/new-mexico-emotional-support-animal/hobbs/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-05
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 41,061
- Households renting: 34%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): No cap on an annual lease
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$50/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## A deadline that moves while you are watching it

Hobbs has 4,832 renting households out of 14,211 occupied homes, **34.0
percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate.
Median gross rent is **$1,112**, which is above the $1,067 New Mexico
median, unusual for a city this far from the Albuquerque–Santa Fe corridor.
The 2024 Census estimate puts Hobbs at 41,061 people, seventh in New Mexico.
Lea County's own offices are not in the city. The address they publish
carries Lovington's postcode.

A Hobbs tenant who is refused an accommodation for an assistance animal
reads that New Mexico allows 300 days to complain. That number is correct.
It is also not the deadline she thinks it is.

## What the statute says

**NMSA 1978, § 28-1-10(A)**, Grievance procedure:

> "A person claiming to be aggrieved by an unlawful discriminatory practice … may file with the
> human rights division of the labor department a written complaint that shall state the name and
> address of the person alleged to have engaged in the discriminatory practice, all information
> relating to the discriminatory practice and any other information that may be required by the
> commission. **All complaints shall be filed with the division within three hundred days after
> the alleged act was committed.**"

Three hundred days is generous by regional standards. The 2005 legislature
raised it from one hundred eighty. Read alone, it sounds like a postmark
rule.

## What the rule the Bureau actually applies says

The Human Rights Bureau sits inside the Labor Relations Division of the
Department of Workforce Solutions, and it writes its own procedure at 9.1.1
NMAC. Two of those paragraphs change the answer.

**9.1.1.8(E)(1) NMAC**, Manner of filing:

> "**The complaint shall be deemed filed as of the date the perfected complaint is received by the
> bureau office.** A perfected complaint contains all the information required in Subsection D of
> this section. **If the complaint is missing any of the listed requirements, it shall be returned
> to the complainant** or their legal representative for completion **before the complaint will be
> deemed perfected.**"

**9.1.1.8(B) NMAC** — Time limit:

> "All complaints shall be filed with the bureau within 300 calendar days after **the last alleged
> act** of unlawful discrimination was committed. **The bureau does not have jurisdiction over
> complaints that are filed more than 300 calendar days** after the last alleged act of
> discrimination."

Put the two together. Sending something on day 295 stops nothing. An incomplete filing is
**returned**, and the day that counts is the day the finished one arrives. The word
"jurisdiction" in the second rule is what makes the point sharp: this is not a deadline an
examiner can be talked into forgiving.

## What "perfected" means in practice

Subsection D lists what has to be in the document. Among the items a housing complaint tends to be
missing on the first attempt:

- **"the time, date, place and nature of the occurrences"**, not "last spring," but dates;
- **"the particular provisions of the state or federal statutes … upon which the complainant bases
  the claim"**;
- **"the first alleged date and the most recent alleged date."**

That middle item is quietly the most demanding one on the list, because it
asks a tenant to name the provision she is relying on. For an assistance
animal in a Hobbs rental, the honest answer is not what most people expect.

## Which provision goes in that box

The Human Rights Act's only accommodation duty is **§ 28-1-7(J)**, and it is addressed to
"**any employer**." Both § 28-1-2(V) and **9.1.1.7(X) NMAC** define reasonable accommodation
"**for employment purposes**." The housing subsections at § 28-1-7(G) cover refusal, terms and
advertising — none of them requires anyone to make an exception to a rule.

So the box gets two entries. **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)**, the federal Fair Housing Act's
accommodation duty, for the right to keep the animal at all. And **§ 28-1-7(G)(2)**, which reaches
discrimination "in the terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental because of a physical or
mental disability, for any charge attached to it.

Working that out on day 290, with the form half filled in, is a bad way to spend a week.

## The other paragraph worth knowing before you file

**9.1.1.8(F)(3) NMAC** — Jurisdiction:

> "**When a disability or serious medical condition is alleged in the complaint, the complainant
> must offer evidence of the disability or serious medical condition during the course of the
> investigation. Evidence documenting a disability or serious medical condition may be provided by
> the written certification of a physician or other appropriate medical authority** unless the
> existence of the disability or serious medical condition is not a matter in dispute."

Notice where the burden sits. The complainant offers the evidence. And the
Bureau's own rule names the form it expects that evidence to take.

This rule governs the Bureau's investigation, not the landlord's front desk.
It does not license a Hobbs property manager to demand a diagnosis or
records when you make the request. But it does tell you what the state
agency will want later, and there is no reason for that document to be
created in a hurry after a refusal rather than calmly before the request.

## The forms, and the website that is not there

Two practical notes for Lea County.

**9.1.1.8(C)(2) NMAC** accepts a Bureau charge of discrimination form, "**on an EEOC form 5**, or
on such other form as the human rights bureau deems acceptable," so the shape of the paperwork is
not the obstacle. And **9.1.1.8(E)(2) NMAC** treats a complaint first filed with "any duly
authorized civil rights agency holding a work sharing agreement or memorandum of understanding
with the bureau" as filed here on that earlier date, again, from the day the **perfected**
complaint reached that agency.

The Bureau itself is harder to reach than it should be. It has no working
public website that can be opened and checked. Housing New Mexico, the
state's housing finance authority, publishes the Bureau's numbers on its
fair housing page, (800) 566-9471 and (505) 827-6838, alongside New Mexico
Legal Aid's intake line. Public housing is another gap here: Hobbs sits in
the Eastern Regional Housing Authority's territory, and that authority has
no reachable site either, so the usable local links are the City of Hobbs
and Lea County.

## Getting the evidence made before the clock matters

The southeast is thin on independent mental-health practices. Most of New
Mexico's specialist capacity is in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and a Hobbs,
Lovington or Artesia resident asking for a first appointment is usually
quoted a wait in months, not weeks.

If you already see someone here and the relationship is real, ask them
first. That is the strongest and cheapest document available, though a
clinician treating you for something else may properly decline to make a
disability finding, and many will.

Where that is not on the table, a licensed evaluation is the same assessment
scheduled on purpose: a licensed professional works out whether a disability
exists and whether this animal answers it, and records the conclusion where
it does. It can also end in no, which is exactly why the yes is worth
anything.

New Mexico's clock is one of the longer ones in the region and it stops
later than it looks. The tenant who already holds a written certification is
the tenant who can perfect a complaint on the first attempt, and who had the
document in hand on the day she asked, which is the day the whole thing was
actually decided.

## What Hobbs landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not refuse to rent, or refuse to negotiate, because of a physical or mental disability: NMSA 1978, § 28-1-7(G)(1).
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental or in the facilities and services provided with it, § 28-1-7(G)(2). This is the state provision a charge attached to an assistance animal is met by.
- May not use the three-day substantial-violation route over an animal. § 47-8-3(V)'s closed list does not include one. The route is a written seven-day notice and cure under § 47-8-33(A), served within thirty days of the breach or knowledge of it.
- May not raise at trial any ground outside the written notice, § 47-8-33(G).
- May not retaliate by raising rent, cutting services or bringing an action for possession within six months of a fair housing complaint made to a government agency, on pain of liability for two times the monthly rent: §§ 47-8-39(A)(4), 47-8-48(C).

**Can:**
- Must make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where necessary to afford equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling, but under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) and 24 C.F.R. § 100.204, not under New Mexico law, which imposes that duty only on employers.
- May adopt a no-pets rule only where it is reasonably related to its purpose and applied to all residents fairly, § 47-8-23(B)–(C), and may impose one mid-tenancy only with reasonable notice and only where it does not work a substantial modification of the bargain: § 47-8-23(F).
- May demand only a reasonable deposit, and only to recover damage caused to the premises, § 47-8-18(A). Under a lease shorter than a year the deposit may not exceed one month's rent; under an annual lease anything above one month's rent obliges the owner to pay passbook-rate interest.
- Is outside the state Act only in the narrow cases § 28-1-9 describes: the single-family exemption at (A), with its reservations and its condition that no prohibited advertisement was used, and the separate owner-occupied exemption at (D) for four families. The federal Fair Housing Act draws its own exemptions and is unaffected.

## How to get an ESA letter in Hobbs

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Hobbs. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for New Mexico clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation**, The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations, not everyone qualifies. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation New Mexico landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord**, Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Hobbs. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## Housing help in Hobbs

- [City of Hobbs](https://www.hobbsnm.gov/) (city government)
- [Lea County](https://www.leacounty.gov/) (county government)
- [New Mexico Legal Aid](https://newmexicolegalaid.org/) (legal aid)
- [Housing New Mexico (MFA)](https://housingnm.org/) (state housing authority)
- [Disability Rights New Mexico](https://drnm.org/) (disability rights org)

## Frequently asked questions

### New Mexico gives me 300 days. When does that clock actually stop running?

When a complete complaint arrives, not when you post one. 9.1.1.8(E)(1) NMAC provides that a complaint "shall be deemed filed as of the date the perfected complaint is received by the bureau office", and that a filing missing any listed requirement "shall be returned to the complainant or their legal representative for completion before the complaint will be deemed perfected". Sending something incomplete on day 295 stops nothing, and the days keep running while it is out.

### What has to be in the document before it counts as perfected?

Everything listed in Subsection D of 9.1.1.8 NMAC. The items that trip up a housing complaint are the specific ones: "the time, date, place and nature of the occurrences", "the particular provisions of the state or federal statutes ... upon which the complainant bases the claim", and "the first alleged date and the most recent alleged date". The middle item is the hard one, because it asks you to name the provision rather than describe the problem.

### If the landlord refused me more than once, which refusal starts the count?

The regulation and the statute state the trigger differently, and the regulation is what the Bureau applies. § 28-1-10(A) says 300 days "after the alleged act was committed"; 9.1.1.8(B) NMAC says 300 calendar days after "the last alleged act of unlawful discrimination was committed", and adds that the bureau "does not have jurisdiction" over anything filed later. That word makes it a limit nobody at the agency can waive for you.

### Do I have to use a New Mexico form?

No. 9.1.1.8(C)(2) NMAC accepts a human rights bureau charge of discrimination form, "on an EEOC form 5, or on such other form as the human rights bureau deems acceptable". The paperwork format is not the obstacle here; completeness is.

### If I file somewhere else first, does that protect my date?

Sometimes. 9.1.1.8(E)(2) NMAC treats a complaint first filed with "any duly authorized civil rights agency holding a work sharing agreement or memorandum of understanding with the bureau" as filed with the bureau on the date the perfected complaint first reached that agency. Note the same word: perfected. Nothing in Title 9 NMAC names a federal housing agency as such a partner, so do not assume a New Mexico housing complaint is automatically dual-filed anywhere.

### What proof of my disability will the Bureau ask for?

9.1.1.8(F)(3) NMAC puts the burden on the complainant to "offer evidence of the disability or serious medical condition during the course of the investigation", and says that evidence "may be provided by the written certification of a physician or other appropriate medical authority" unless the disability is not in dispute. That rule governs the agency's investigation, not the leasing office, so it does not license a Hobbs landlord to demand your records at the counter.

### Where do I find the Human Rights Bureau online?

You largely do not. The Bureau sits in the Labor Relations Division of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions and writes its rules at 9.1.1 NMAC, but it has no public website that can be opened and verified. Housing New Mexico prints its complaint numbers, (800) 566-9471 and (505) 827-6838, on the state fair housing page. For Lea County the reliable municipal links are the City of Hobbs and Lea County itself; the regional housing authority covering Hobbs has no working site.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=blog&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=new-mexico-emotional-support-animal%2Fhobbs