Kill Devil Hills, N.C. (WTKR) - A plan that would hike homeowners insurance rates in North Carolina continues to come under fire.
NewsChannel 3 first reported on the proposal in January.
Insurance companies in the Tar Heel state submitted a proposal through the North Carolina Rate Bureau that would increase the rates by a statewide average of 25.3% while parts of the Outer Banks could see their rates increase by 35%.
It's particularly irksome for Outer Banks homeowners like Cynthia Lindquist who was affected when the rates increased last summer.
"That wiped out our savings account," Lindquist said. "I don't know what we are going to do this year if they increase it anymore. We just really don't have that much more in our monthly budget to do it."
North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin ordered a public hearing to be held in Raleigh on August 6 on the proposed increases.
In the Notice of Hearing, Goodwin calls the data used by the insurance companies to support their request "questionable" and writes "there is a pervasive lack of documentation, explanation and justification."
He goes on to say "the proposed rates appear in their entirety to be excessive and unfairly discriminatory."
The North Carolina Department of Insurance says more than 10,000 comments on the proposed hikes were submitted during the January public comment period.
To read the full Notice of Hearing, click here.
