@Jennifer McPherson no offence but your attorney is not an attorney that deals with landlords and tenants.

Run their full credit, criminal, eviction background and the picture should become clearer for you. 

Like one section of fencing that's the exact width of his gate.Just kidding.

And if he’s scaring off tenants and making your life hell in the meantime you might have some sort of case of opportunity cost.I would also advise talking to a lawyer sooner rather than later because if it does come to a legal battle the first person to file has a little bit of a psychological upper hand in the court system, or so I’ve been told- especially when it comes to disputes rather than overtly criminal behavior.Also I’m sorry for your loss.

what to do if the tenant is not comfortable giving SIN number for a credit and criminal background check?

Criminals overran the city, it was bankrupt, and policeman didn't want to patrol the streets.One of the people who decided to invest during this period of time was Donald Trump.  

The Memphis property was owned by a couple of out of state investors who were relying on an incompetent property manager and a criminally negligent contractor to steal anything and everything they got their hands on.  

My motto is the best offence is strong defence.

What I'd tell them is that I would be willing to look at it to give them an initial decision as to whether or not the credit report they give me would be a deal breaker - but, I'd also tell them that if it's not, then I'll be doing my own credit search through our company, and would still be checking all other references and running all other reports like eviction, criminal, etc.You could offer that as an alternative - but be sure to tell them in order to rent to them, you'll be running all checks through your company, which will be a hard hit.They'll probably screen themselves out at that point, anyway.If you're trying to figure out how to run someone's credit report without their knowledge, then as I understand it, that's against the law, and therefore, a really bad idea.

Do you require both credit and criminal checks on all occupants over 18 or just who ever is signing the lease?