jsanders@sacbee.com
The tangled fiscal chain of events could complicate her efforts to seek re-election in a neighboring Assembly district, where she will run because a state commission redrew her current district to tilt strongly Republican.
Huber's story involves incomes and real estate much larger than those of the average wage earner, but it is a reminder that politicians are not immune from the same personal and money woes felt by millions of Californians to varying degrees.
Huber, 39, has announced that she is moving to Rancho Cordova to seek a final two-year term from a newly drawn district, stretching from Citrus Heights to south of Wilton, that she thinks she can win.
Huber is leaving behind two El Dorado Hills homes: a five-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot residence on Terracina Drive that she plans to rent out, and a four-bedroom, 4,000-square foot home on Breese Circle with pool, spa and golf course view that was $21,100 in arrears when a default notice was filed Oct. 12.
A timeline of Huber's troubles encompasses much of 2011, from January, when she left her husband, to the mortgage default in October.
The Hubers stopped paying in June on their Breese Circle home, which is on the market now for a third less than they owe on it. The payments stopped immediately after the couple purchased a second home, for $520,000, on Terracina Drive in a gated neighborhood of the same Serrano housing tract, records show.
Alyson Huber says that her marital breakup explains the mortgage machinations. Court records show that she filed for divorce May 2, citing irreconcilable differences. She had left her husband and the Breese Circle home four months before that, when payments were current.
Huber's husband, Tim, did not respond to numerous calls for comment. Alyson Huber said she initially rented a home after leaving her husband. In June, the couple bought the Terracina Drive home for her and left the Breese Circle home for him, but he stopped making payments, she said.
Records bear out Alyson Huber's claim that the Terracina home is hers: One week after the couple bought it, Tim Huber signed documents making it her property. But Alyson Huber's name was not taken off the Breese Circle loan, now in default. She says she can't get it off pending a divorce trial in April.
"I pay all my bills," Alyson Huber said. "I believe in honoring my commitments. But I've been put in an impossible situation. I cannot, as a single mom with two children, pay my mortgage and pay my ex-husband's mortgage."
The Hubers' story has potential political impacts, but at its core, it is similar to that of many homeowners struggling to pay for or sell homes in a time of economic pain and fallen property values.
"This kind of dilemma plays itself out in family courts throughout the state – it's just that it doesn't get noticed when it involves ordinary folks like you and me," said John Myers, a professor of family law at McGeorge School of Law.
Alyson Huber's personal problems were exacerbated by redistricting, the once-a- decade redrawing of legislative districts that was done this year by a citizens commission rather than by lawmakers.
It appeared when Huber bought her Terracina Drive home she would be in a promising location for her political career. Draft maps released about a week after the purchase, in June, showed it in a moderate Assembly district with slightly more Democrats than Republicans.
Less than two months later, however, Huber's Assembly district had been redrawn to tilt strongly to the right – with a 20 percentage-point GOP advantage – and to include incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Beth Gaines of Roseville. Districts throughout the state were altered in response to public hearings.
By renting a house in Rancho Cordova, Huber can compete in a swing district with no incumbent. But her El Dorado County default is likely to be raised as an issue by political opponents.
Property records show that the Hubers purchased a lot and had their Breese Circle home built in 2005 for $856,000. In 2007, they signed an equity loan that has brought their total debt on the residence to nearly $1.1 million.
When their marriage broke up, Tim Huber wanted the Breese Circle house and she could not afford it, Alyson Huber said. Her legislative salary is $95,291; in addition, she opted to begin accepting a per diem stipend to defray lawmakers' living expenses. She received $24,000 in taxable per diem this year. In requesting the money, she turned in her state car and gas card.
Both Hubers are attorneys, but the couple's 2010 income tax statements show that his earnings in the legal profession were more than three times higher than hers that year.
"He was the one who could afford to have the house, so I let him have the house," she said of Breese Circle, "and I got my house to raise my kids in."
The Hubers signed a separation agreement on April 29 that said they would sell the Breese Circle home and cited obligations of each spouse. Tim Huber temporarily would use the marriage's community property funds to pay the first and second mortgages on that residence, the pact said. It did not specify how any losses on the Breese Circle home would be handled, leaving that to be resolved in the coming trial.
Meanwhile, the down payment on a new home for Alyson Huber would be made with community funds. Her husband would be reimbursed for his half of that sum, the pact said.
Once escrow closed on Alyson Huber's Terracina Drive residence, her husband no longer would use community funds to make Breese Circle payments, the settlement agreement said.
The couple's pact does not specifically say that Tim Huber would use his own money to keep the Breese Circle mortgage from default. But Alyson Huber said her understanding was that she would pay for the new home and he would pay for the old.
"It's a divorce, it's a nasty divorce," she said. "Am I legally required to pay his mortgage when he's living in it?"
Myers, the McGeorge law professor, said that couples can agree among themselves that one spouse will pay a mortgage for which both signed, but lenders are not bound by that.
The Breese Circle home initially was listed at $1.15 million, but the asking price has fallen gradually to $725,000, records show. Alyson Huber said a short-sale offer on the house was made about a month ago. Lenders are weighing whether to accept it, she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment