New Mexico's small-estate route for a vehicle: when an owner dies leaving no will - or a will nobody has probated - a claiming successor can take title on this one notarized affidavit instead of a court process. The form prints its four statutory conditions in its own capitals: the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, is not worth over $50,000; thirty days have elapsed since the death; no personal-representative appointment is pending or granted anywhere; and the claiming successor is entitled to the transfer. It also carries a full odometer disclosure - the modern four-box version, Exempt (EX) included.
Written against MVD-10013 (Rev 06/24), issued under NMSA 1978 §§45-3-1201 and 66-3-105(C).
This affidavit and the transfer-without-probate certificate are parallel doors into the same room - the successor route needs the estate under its cap, the heir-or-spouse route needs entitlement by operation of law. Read both pages before swearing either; picking the wrong one wastes a notary visit, and the conditions you certify differ between them.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVD-10013 from the realfile.tax.newmexico.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MVD-10013 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual MVD-10013, rendered from the PDF the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, Motor Vehicle Division publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
The four statutory conditions sit printed above the signature rule, so the successor swears to all of them at once - the estate cap, the thirty days, the absent probate, and the entitlement. The AM box is ticked because a successor may certify actual mileage to the best of their knowledge; the applicant and notary signature rules are printed lines the fillable PDF leaves to the pen.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
Somebody else fills this in
The two names
The claiming successor and the registered owner, printed - the affidavit connects one to the other.
Watch out: The registered owner's name should match the title exactly; the succession is to that record, spelling and all.
2
Somebody else fills this in
The vehicle
Year, make, model, VIN and plate, from the certificate if it can be found.
Watch out: If the certificate is lost, note the duplicate route exists for successors - the affidavit plus identification and the death certificate supports it.
3
Somebody else fills this in
The odometer, honestly approximated
Read the dash, enter whole miles, and tick the truthful code - AM if the reading is credible, EX only if the model year genuinely qualifies.
Watch out: The four-box block on this revision includes EX, so a 2010-or-older vehicle is disclosed correctly here even though the everyday forms cannot.
4
Somebody else fills this in
Date of death, and the four conditions
The death date goes into the certification; the conditions beneath it are what your signature swears.
Watch out: Value the estate before you sign, not after - the $50,000 test covers everything the deceased owned, less liens, wherever it is.
5
Somebody else fills this in
Sign before the notary
Signature and date in the notary's presence, acknowledgement completed, seal applied.
Watch out: Bring the death certificate to the counter as well - the original or a certified copy. The clerk must see it and certify they did; a photocopy alone stalls the transfer.
6
Somebody else fills this in
Title it before selling it
The successor applies to register and title the vehicle in their own name; only then can it be sold on the ordinary paperwork.
Watch out: Fees still apply, but on a transfer to a beneficiary for no consideration the excise tax does not - the tax waits for the eventual sale to a real buyer.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
NAME OF CLAIMING SUCCESSOR, NAME OF REGISTERED OWNER
The person claiming, and the person who died - printed, one above the other.
YEAR, MAKE, MODEL, VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER, LICENSE PLATE OR VESSEL NUMBER
The vehicle block, on one rule.
Odometer Disclosure Statement
The reading in whole miles - the blank says (NO TENTHS) - then four boxes: THE ACTUAL MILEAGE (AM), MILEAGE IN EXCESS OF MECHANICAL LIMITS (EL), the NM discrepancy warning, and EXEMPT (EX).
The certification
I certify that I am the claiming successor of the above registered owner, who died on the ___ day of ___, 20__ - followed by the four numbered statutory conditions.
SIGNATURE OF APPLICANT, DATE
The successor's signature under a true-and-correct certification that all statutory requirements have been met.
Notary Public block
State of New Mexico, county, the acknowledgement, the notarial official's signature, commission expiry and seal space - with the form's printed insistence that notarization must be by a public notary.
What gets this one rejected
•An estate over the cap. The first printed condition is that the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, is not worth over $50,000 - the whole estate, not the car.
•Filed inside thirty days of the death. The statute builds in the waiting period, and the affidavit certifies it has passed.
•A probate quietly running elsewhere. The third condition - no appointment of a personal representative pending or granted in any jurisdiction - is sworn, and a court file anywhere contradicts it.
•No death certificate behind it. The division requires the original or a certified copy of the death certificate - or, for military personnel, the military DD-1300 casualty report - and the clerk certifies on the retained copy that they saw it.
•A lien on the title with no release. Death does not release a lender; the lien shown must be released like any other before the title moves.
•The odometer block skipped out of delicacy. The manual answers the awkward question directly: whoever has the legal ability to transfer title may complete the odometer statement, including asserting actual mileage to the best of their knowledge.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The claimant need not be family. The manual's own note: the claimant does not need to be related to the deceased. Entitlement flows from the succession statute, not from surname.
•A lost title does not stop it. If the certificate is missing, the claiming successor may apply for a duplicate, and the clerk processes the transaction as a title transfer.
