Eviction Sealing Should Top New Mexico’s Legislative Housing Agenda

Our partners at the United South Broadway Corporation recently published this piece from Allison Freedman in their monthly newsletter. Allison argues that eviction records should be sealed at the point of filing to protect tenants from the harms of the eviction screening market. She suggests that any legislation should include three main components:

1.      All eviction cases must be sealed at the point of filing. They should be unsealed where the landlord prevails and the tenant is actually removed from the home;

2.      Cases older than seven years should be automatically sealed as stale evictions should not be used as a predictor of future tenant behavior; and

3.      Tenants should be able to request that eviction records be sealed before seven years under special circumstances, including when the parties agree or a judge determines that sealing records is in the interests of justice.