ALBANY — The day Eric Dinnen’s bathtub rained water into the apartment below, he had no idea it would cost him nine months of court hearings, hundreds of dollars in fees, missed work, and a slow unraveling of his health.
When the landlord allegedly did little to address the damage and raised the rent on Dinnen’s one-bedroom apartment on Elizabeth Street in downtown Albany, the 45-year-old photographer took her to court.
Again and again, he walked to the courthouse to ask a judge to order repairs and reduce his rent. In February, he won: Albany City Court Judge Ricja Rice ordered his landlord to pay him almost $4,000 in past rent. While he is still waiting for his landlord to pay him, Dinnen managed to withhold enough future rent to move his family out…