Review your policy

I just learned something that every Floridian should know. Citizens Insurance confirmed to my insurance agent that it will only pay out the replacement cost of the building at the time of the loss, not the policy limits in the instance that a building is overinsured.

With our housing-market slide and the downturn in property values, how many people are overinsured? How do you fix this? You obtain a property appraisal (about $500) to make sure limits are in line with actual cost estimations. Citizens will not decrease building limits without an appraisal. We did this and saved $3,000 per year on our building.

On flood insurance, we saved $1,000 per year when we got a Flood Estimate Survey (approximately ($125), and our insurance agent shopped coverage. Instead of Citizens giving the billions to other insurance carriers to take policies, perhaps what they should be doing is give the citizens that have been overpaying over the last five years a rebate.

Margaret Murray, Miami Shores

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‘First 48’ exploits victims of crime

Thank you for your recent coverage of the city of Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa’s decision not to renew a contract with the reality show The First 48. For years the show’s film crew has roamed the streets of Miami’s urban communities searching for victims of homicide to feature on their show. 1369259411
Spiritual or religious?

Martin Slater’s May 17 letter, Changing beliefs, responding to Myriam Marquez’s May 12 column makes the common mistake of equating religion and spirituality. While religions encourage the development of our spiritual sense, religious dogmas are unnecessary to cultivate one’s own sense of spirituality. Many nonreligious individuals are highly spiritual, keenly in tune with their inner-self and the concept of a creative universal force. 1369259411
DCF is disgraceful

Re the May 21 article DCF deemed boy safe before he was left in vehicle: It’s unbelievable that the Department of Children & Families would do absolutely nothing about a woman who reportedly was drunk and driving, hitting walls and passing out while her young son was in the car untethered. 1369259411

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