About the Lea County Clerk
Lea County was organized in 1917 out of portions of Eddy and Chaves counties and named for Captain Joseph Calloway Lea, a Confederate veteran who became Roswell's first mayor and founded the New Mexico Military Institute, though he never lived in the county that bears his name. Monument, established around 1900 near a rock cairn cowboys had piled up to mark a desert spring, was the county's first real settlement, but it was Lovington -- founded on a homestead in 1908 by brothers Jim and Robert Florence Love -- that became county seat when Lea County organized in 1917. The county's character changed permanently on June 13, 1928, when a major oil discovery in the Hobbs field turned a quiet ranching community into one of New Mexico's great oil boomtowns almost overnight. Sitting atop the Permian Basin, Lea County remains New Mexico's top oil-producing county and a leading natural gas producer, with Hobbs now the county's largest city and Lovington still its seat of government. Flat, sandy-loam plains cover most of the county's 4,300-plus square miles, supporting cattle and dairy operations alongside the oilfield economy that dominates local employment.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within Lea County, this is the Lea County Clerk that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated cities: Lovington (county seat), Hobbs, Eunice, Jal, Tatum.
Unincorporated communities: Maljamar, Monument, Buckeye, Humble City, Knowles.
Office Details
Address: 100 North Main Avenue, Suite 1C, Lovington, NM 88260
Phone: (575) 396-8619
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Recording Fee: New Mexico charges a flat, statute-set recording fee per document, with an added fee once a document runs past a set number of index entries -- not a percentage of the property's value. Contact the county clerk's office for current amounts.
E-recording: Lea County is part of the Simplifile e-recording network, so deeds prepared by a title company or attorney using that service can often be submitted electronically rather than by mail or in person.
Good to know before you go: The Lea County Clerk's own recording guidance specifies a required 1.5-inch margin on every page and a minimum 8-point font for recorded documents; e-filed documents with any illegible portion may be rejected and sent back for mailing, so it's worth double-checking scan quality before submitting a deed electronically.
How to File a Document
- Sign in Front of a Notary -- In Person or Remotely: New Mexico requires the grantor's signature to be acknowledged before a notary public before the Lea County Clerk will accept a deed for recording. New Mexico has permitted remote online notarization on a permanent basis since January 1, 2022, under the state's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (NMSA 1978, Sections 14-14A-1 to 14-14A-32) -- the notary handling it must be commissioned and physically located in New Mexico at the time, even if you're signing from somewhere else.
- Attach a Full Legal Description, Not Just an Address: A street address alone won't satisfy New Mexico's requirements -- the deed needs the property's actual legal description (a metes-and-bounds description, a government survey reference, or a platted lot and block, depending on how the parcel was originally surveyed and subdivided), plus a reference to the prior deed that brought the property into the grantor's name, to keep the chain of title intact. You can usually copy the legal description directly from the deed that transferred the property to you.
- Get Both Spouses to Sign if It's Community Property: New Mexico is a community property state, and state law (NMSA 1978, Section 40-3-13) generally requires both spouses to join in a deed transferring community real property -- even when only one spouse's name appears on the title. Skipping the second signature doesn't necessarily void the transfer outright, but it leaves the deed open to being challenged, so it's worth confirming with the Lea County Clerk or an attorney whether your specific situation calls for both signatures before you file.
- File a Real Property Transfer Declaration Affidavit With the Assessor: For most residential property transfers, New Mexico law (NMSA 1978, Section 7-38-12.1) also requires a separate Real Property Transfer Declaration Affidavit to be filed with the county assessor's office -- not the Lea County Clerk -- within thirty days of recording the deed. It's a distinct step from recording itself, used to keep the assessor's records current for property tax purposes, and the assessor's office can supply the current form.
- Record With the County Clerk: Bring, mail, or (where the county supports it) e-file the signed, notarized deed with the Lea County Clerk for the county where the property sits. New Mexico charges a flat, statute-set recording fee per document, with an added fee once a document runs past a set number of index entries -- never a percentage of the property's value -- and the state has no separate real estate transfer tax on top of it. The first page needs roughly an inch and a half of blank space at the top for the clerk's recording stamp, with the document's title placed just below it.
Still Have Questions About Filing With the Lea County Clerk?
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Other Counties in New Mexico
Filing somewhere else in the state? Here are a few other county pages:
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