The top three homeowners insurers in Texas are seeking to raiserates—one by up to 15%—in 2014, the Dallas Morning News reports, but the state's public insurancecounselor tells PC360 she will challenge the requests.

According to the Dallas Morning News story, written by TerrenceStutz, Farmers, State Farm and Allstate have submitted rate hikerequests of 14.9%, 9.8%, and 6.5% respectively to the TexasDepartment of Insurance (TDI), citing reasons from increasingdamages from natural catastrophes in recent years to high businesscosts.

A State Farm spokeswomen says in the article that the companyspends $1.11 for every premium dollar it collects for claimsprocessing and other business expenses.

Texas Public Insurance Counselor Deeia Beck, though, tells PC360she is challenging all three rate increases, saying the estimatesof current and future cost increases are exaggerated.

"Non-modeled catastrophe provisions include trend assumptionsthat appear largely arbitrary and unsupported," Beck wrote toFarmers Insurance Exchange in a statement she shared withPC360, in which she also wrote that "the premium and losstrend selections used in the filing are unreasonable andsignificantly inflate the rate indication."

She shared similar concerns regarding State Farm Lloyds andAllstate filings.