3 New N.J. Laws That You Need To Know After The Blizzard

Although some snow fell on Friday, it doesn’t look like any big snowstorm is coming in the near future.

But there’s still a lot of snow on the ground from the weekend blizzard. And there are many people who are still dealing with the storm’s after-effects, such as flooding.

Gov. Chris Christie recently signed three new laws that could apply to you as we wait for this snow to melt:

Snow shoveling door-to-door: Yes, kids, you can go back to begging neighbors to shovel their walk...A law signed this past week allows ”unregulated solicitation” to perform snow shoveling within 24 hours of predicted snowstorm. Christie signed the bill this month making it legal for New Jersey residents to offer snow shoveling services without first registering with their town. The law was based on case last year when Bound Brook police stopped teens from going door-to-door, and offering to shovel snow for a small fee. The license in that town costs $450 and is good for 180 days.

Property taxes on destroyed property: You say your home was destroyed in the flooding that came about as a result of the weekend snowstorm. Since Christie declared a state of emergency, you’re in luck (sort of). The new law establishes a special grace period that provides taxpayers additional time to make payment on installments of property taxes, without accruing interest on the unpaid balance, when real property is damaged or destroyed as a result of a national disaster. The law applies to storms that are declared a disaster or compel Christie to declare a state of emergency.

Wearing helmets on the ski slopes: New Jersey became the first state across the country to pass a mandatory helmet law requiring minors to wear helmets on the slopes, and those who fail to do so will face a fine of $25 for the first violation a $100 fines after that. This bill isn’t so new, but it’s not very well known and, some say, not very well enforced, The law took effect November 1, 2011.