A. Any notice that is required to be made to a property owner by the Property Tax Code is effective if mailed by regular first class mail to the property owner's last address or to the address of any person other than the owner to whom the tax bill is to be sent as shown by the valuation records unless the provisions of that code require a different method of notification or mailing, in which case the notice is effective if given in accordance with the provisions of that code.

B. If a property owner notifies, in writing or by electronic mail, the county assessor or the county treasurer that the property owner wants to receive notices pursuant to the Property Tax Code by electronic mail rather than by regular first class mail, the county assessor or the county treasurer may thereafter provide such notices to the property owner using an electronic mail address provided by the property owner; provided that the notice is consistent with the requirements of the Electronic Authentication of Documents Act [14-15-1 to 14-15-6 NMSA 1978] and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act [Chapter 14, Article 16 NMSA 1978]. A property owner's request to receive notices by electronic mail shall be effective until revoked in writing or by electronic mail to the county assessor and the county treasurer. Wherever the Property Tax Code requires a method of notification or mailing done only by the county assessor or county treasurer, other than by regular first class mail, the notice is effective if given in accordance with the provisions of that code.

C. An electronic mail address provided by a property owner pursuant to this section shall not be considered a valuation record pursuant to Section 7-38-19 NMSA 1978 and shall be retained by the county assessor as a confidential record that is not subject to inspection pursuant to the Inspection of Public Records Act [Chapter 14, Article 2 NMSA 1978].

History: 1953 Comp., § 72-31-84, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 258, § 124; 1974, ch. 92, § 29; 2015, ch. 2, § 1.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, provided property owners the option of receiving notices under this section via electronic mail rather than by first class mail, set forth the election procedure, and provided that electronic mail addresses be retained by the county assessor as confidential records; designated the previously undesignated paragraph as Subsection A, and after "the provisions of", deleted "the" and added "that" in two places; and added Subsections B and C.