This "resets the clock" and the countdown to SoL starts all over again.

Maybe you get a month judgement or something like that [at best] and a week in the headlines...hit "reset".

So creating a new lease for the remaining tenant would 'reset the clock' on your ability to increase rent. 

It sounds like you need a solution that will work over time without having to keep resetting the trap.   

He’ll play the victim in court and drag this out nicely, and/or try and reset the clock with you somehow.

From further discussions, it sounds like the electrician simply reset the breaker.

I.e. changing a lightbulb was $50, plunging the toilet was $100, reseting breakers was $50...

Then 10-15th year it resets again to the FHLBNY fixed rate plus 3%.

How to reset a breaker if it trips. 

I would than also make sure I am working in areas that have special funds available to rehab and improve said rental property at low or no %, ideally forgivable potential, I would utilize those funds to improve property to achieve maximum marketable rents as well as "reset" the "maintenance time-clock" to 0.