Committee Substitute March 7, 2025 in SJC

SJCcs/SB 267: The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Substitute for Senate Bill 267 makes the following changes:

•	The definition of “rent” is revised to allow for inclusion of fees and utilities;
•	The section on “owner disclosure to applicants” is revised, requiring an owner to disclose to applicants, in plain language, all costs of a rental agreement;
•	A statement is added: “An owner shall not be liable for violating the provisions of the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act for a third-party website’s failure to represent all costs provided by the owner.
•	The section on “screening fees” is revised to stipulate:

A. An owner may charge an applicant a screening fee that shall not exceed fifty dollars ($50.00) to cover the cost of obtaining information about the applicant, including the cost of a consumer credit report, a reference check or a screening service; provided that the owner: 
(1) provides the applicant with written or digital notice of the screening fee and the applicant agrees in writing to pay the screening fee; 
(2) shall not charge the applicant a screening fee when the owner knows or should know that a dwelling unit is not available for rent at that time or will not be available at the beginning of the residency; 
(3) provides the applicant with a written or digital receipt for the screening fee paid by the applicant; 
(4) shall place a hold on a credit card or wait to deposit cash or checks for an applicant's screening fee until all prior applicants have either been screened and rejected or offered the dwelling unit and declined to enter into a rental agreement; and (5) shall not charge any other fees to process an application. 

B. An owner shall return the screening fee within thirty calendar days to an applicant if: (1) a prior applicant is offered the dwelling unit and agrees to enter into a rental agreement; or (2) the owner does not: (a) obtain a consumer credit report; (b) perform a reference check; (c) use a screening service to obtain information about the applicant; or (d) process the application. 

C. A screening fee that is returned as provided in Subsection B of this section shall be: (1) returned by certified mail; (2) destroyed upon the applicant's request if paid by check; or (3) made available for the applicant to retrieve."

•	The section on “background checks” is revised to state:

A.	An owner may require a background check of an applicant before entering a rental agreement. An owner shall not charge more than one screening fee to the same applicant if the screening was completed within ninety calendar days of the application date for any properties under the same ownership. 

B.	An owner shall provide the applicant with a copy of any reports used to screen the applicant.

•	Definitions are added and/or revised as follows:

"seller-initiated telephone sale" means a sale, lease or rental of goods or services in which the seller or the seller's representative solicits the sale by telephoning the prospective purchaser and in which the sale is consummated entirely by telephone or mail, but does not include a transaction: (1) in which a person solicits a sale from a prospective purchaser who has previously made an authorized purchase from the seller's business; or (2) in which the purchaser is accorded the right of rescission by the provisions of the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1635, or regulations issued pursuant thereto; 

"trade" or "commerce" includes the advertising, offering for sale or distribution of any services and any property and any other article, commodity or thing of value, including any trade or commerce directly or indirectly affecting the people of this state;

"unfair or deceptive trade practice" means an act specifically declared unlawful pursuant to the Unfair Practices Act, a false or misleading oral or written statement, visual description or other representation of any kind knowingly made in connection with the sale, lease, rental or loan of goods or services or in the extension of credit or in the collection of debts by a person in the regular course of the person's trade or commerce, that may, tends to or does deceive or mislead any person and includes: (1) representing goods or services as those of another when the goods or services are not the goods or services of another; (2) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval or certification of goods or services; (3) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to affiliation, connection or association with or certification by another; (4) using deceptive representations or designations of geographic origin in connection with goods or services; (5) representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits or quantities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or connection that the person does not have; (6) representing that goods are original or new if they are deteriorated, altered, reconditioned, reclaimed, used or secondhand; (7) representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality or grade or that goods are of a particular style or model if they are of another; (8) disparaging the goods, services or business of another by false or misleading representations; (9) offering goods or services with intent not to supply them in the quantity requested by the prospective buyer to the extent of the stock available, unless the purchaser is purchasing for resale; (10) offering goods or services with intent not to supply reasonable expectable public demand; (11) making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the price of goods or services, the prices of competitors or one's own price at a past or future time or the reasons for, existence of or amounts of price reduction; (12) making false or misleading statements of fact for the purpose of obtaining appointments for the demonstration, exhibition or other sales presentation of goods or services; (13) packaging goods for sale in a container that bears a trademark or trade name identified with goods formerly packaged in the container, without authorization, unless the container is labeled or marked to disclaim a connection between the contents and the trademark or trade name; (14) using exaggeration, innuendo or ambiguity as to a material fact or failing to state a material fact if doing so deceives or tends to deceive; (15) stating that a transaction involves rights, remedies or obligations that it does not involve; (16) stating that services, replacements or repairs are needed if they are not needed; (17) failing to deliver the quality or quantity of goods or services contracted for; (18) violating the Tobacco Escrow Fund Act; [or] (19) offering or providing unposted or unadvertised pricing or service based on the buyer's gender or perceived gender identity; provided, however, that this provision does not apply to persons regulated by the office of superintendent of insurance pursuant to the New Mexico Insurance Code; [and] or (20) charging an applicant a fee in violation of the Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act;

"unconscionable trade practice" means an act or practice in connection with the sale, lease, rental or loan, or in connection with the offering for sale, lease, rental or loan, of any goods or services, including services provided by licensed professionals, or in the extension of credit or in the collection of debts that to a person's detriment: (1) takes advantage of the lack of knowledge, ability, experience or capacity of a person to a grossly unfair degree; or (2) results in a gross disparity between the value received by a person and the price paid.

“person” is defined as natural persons, corporations, trusts, partnerships, associations, cooperative associations, clubs, companies, firms, joint ventures or syndicates.

•	Previous sections regarding prohibited conduct are incorporated into a new section entitled “prohibited conduct in renting of dwelling units”.