Republican and Democratic leaders on Tuesday said that Rep. Laura Richardson’s (D-Calif.) housing troubles warrant congressional scrutiny.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that the ethics committee should address Richardson’s case immediately if her behavior is proven to be below House ethics standards.

Boehner’s office echoed that sentiment.

“If Rep. Richardson’s behavior crossed the line from reckless and irresponsible to unethical, then the ethics committee should respond immediately and investigate,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

According to real estate investor James York, who paid nearly $200,000 below the $575,000 that Richardson owed to her lender Washington Mutual, that is exactly what occurred.

Richardson’s troubles first became public in May when her Sacramento home was foreclosed upon. Washington Mutual quickly stepped in on Richardson’s behalf, moving to block the sale after Richardson began to complain that the auction was improper.

York, apparently out of pocket some $388,000 but without the house he believed he legally purchased on May 7, is now suing Richardson and Washington Mutual. And he believes the bank gave Richardson preferential treatment because she is a member of Congress.

Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.). Photo by Benjamin J. Myers

York’s lawsuit last week led to the disclosure that Richardson — who, prior to purchasing the Sacramento house, had defaulted multiple times on two other California homes — bought the house in Sacramento with a sub-prime mortgage and no money down.

The $535,000 adjustable-rate mortgage that Washington Mutual issued Richardson in January 2007 carried an introductory rate of 8.8 percent.

A Washington Mutual spokeswoman has said that because Richardson has not authorized the firm to do so, it cannot release her financial records.

But records available through Los Angeles and Sacramento counties in California have shown that Richardson has defaulted at least eight times — including six times in the last 14 months alone — on the three properties she owns in Long Beach, San Pedro and Sacramento.

Richardson fell so far behind in payments on her Sacramento home that by December 2007 she had accumulated more mortgage debt — $575,000 — than the original $535,000 she borrowed for the home.

Richardson did not disclose her Sacramento home mortgage as a liability on her initial 2007 financial disclosure statement even though the law requires the disclosure of home mortgage debt if the homeowner rents the property or is more indebted on the mortgage than he or she paid for it.

Last September Richardson also let her San Pedro home slip into default when she fell $12,410 behind on her payments.

On Thursday Richardson received a public warning from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that she needed to live up to the ethical standards that Democrats ushered in two years ago, as well as the laws governing financial disclosures.

“Every member of Congress is responsible for living up to the highest ethical standard, to having the fullest disclosure of his or her assets, as is required by law,” Pelosi said last week. “And many people in our country are caught in a foreclosure crisis. Members of Congress maybe are as well.”

A spokesman for Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, on Tuesday said that Pelosi’s comments still very much apply to Richardson’s situation.

House Republicans said that Richardson’s home foreclosures should be a part of a wider inquiry into whether members of Congress have been given preferential treatment by lenders.

In a letter to Pelosi circulated among Republicans on Tuesday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) called for House hearings on the allegations that Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) received preferential treatment on their mortgage loans from Countrywide Financial.

Hensarling said Tuesday that the inquiry should be expanded to include Richardson.

“I think Congress has to look into its own,” Hensarling said.

Dodd and Conrad have denied wrongdoing. Yet, at a press conference on Tuesday, Dodd said he and his wife knew Countrywide was treating them as “VIP” customers when they refinanced mortgages on two homes in 2003, but that it did not cross his mind he was getting a perk from the sub-prime lender.

Richardson, meanwhile, has all but closed her office to multiple media outlets seeking information about her three home mortgages.

Hensarling, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, said that  hearings are necessary to determine whether the special treatment is widespread and if it impacts the $3 billion “taxpayer bailout.”

Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), who signed on to the Hensarling letter, said that if Richardson simply fell on hard times, then it wouldn’t be necessary to address her issues should the hearing take place.

“But if she has gotten special treatment that someone else would not have gotten [because of her position], then yes,” she should be included in any congressional inquiry, he said.