Two states, two owner-pays machines, and New Mexico's has a feature we have found nowhere else written quite this explicitly: a statutory handoff of injury liability from the city to you, with a 20-day fuse.
New Mexico: the 15-day start and the liability transfer
NMSA 3-49-4 runs on a resolution-and-notice sequence: "Within fifteen days of the receipt of a copy of the resolution or of the posting and publishing of a copy of the resolution, the owner or agent in charge of the building, structure or premise shall commence repairing, improving or constructing a sidewalk." You get an objection-and-hearing path, but once appeals are done, default has two consequences. First, the familiar one: the city does the work and "the reasonable cost of the repair, improvement or construction shall constitute a lien against the tract or parcel of land which is contiguous to the sidewalk."
Second, the unusual one. If "within twenty days of the receipt of the final order" you still have not acted, the statute transfers the courtroom: the owner "is liable for any injury received by any person which injury is proximately caused by the negligence of such owner pertaining to such faulty repair, construction or maintenance of the sidewalk and the municipality is not liable." Nebraska and South Dakota gesture at owner liability; New Mexico writes the municipality's immunity into the same sentence. Twenty days after a final order, a trip-and-fall on that sidewalk is your lawsuit, not the city's. A separate section (3-49-5) adds conventional benefit-based special assessments.
West Virginia: owners or occupants, in the general powers
W. Va. Code 8-12-5(5) puts sidewalk upkeep in the municipal powers list: cities may "order the sidewalks, footways and crosswalks to be paved, repaved, curbed or recurbed and kept in good order, free and clean, by the owners or occupants thereof or of the real property next adjacent thereto." Note "owners or occupants": West Virginia is one of the few states whose statute reaches tenants, not just title holders.
The money mechanics live in Article 18, whose opening section (8-18-1) empowers municipalities "to assess the costs of any or all of such improvements on abutting property." Neither section carries a statewide day-count; the deadline arrives in the city's own order, so the ordinance behind the notice is the document that binds you.
What to do
- New Mexico: 15 days means start, not finish. The statute requires you to "commence" within 15 days. Getting a contractor visibly started inside the window changes your position entirely.
- New Mexico: the 20-day mark is the real cliff. Past it, you carry both the repair bill and the injury exposure while the city carries neither. If you intend to fight, use the hearing process before the final order, not after.
- West Virginia: renters and businesses, read your lease. Because the statute reaches occupants, a commercial lease can genuinely determine who eats a sidewalk order. Check before paying.
Sources: NMSA 3-49-4 and 3-49-5 (via Justia's code archive, disclosed per our methodology), and W. Va. Code 8-12-5 with 8-18-1 (official West Virginia Legislature site, quoted verbatim). City rules live in the complete city guide.