Baltimore City Tenant Issue

[Matthew Keeney]

My friends have a house in Baltimore City that they've been renting out for less than a year. Their tenants broke the lease early and talked the owners into having their parents move in immediately after. This all unfolded rather quickly and the owners got scared their place was going to sit empty. So last night they met the parents and verbally agreed to rent to the parents with no due diligence at all. The new tenants are supposed to move in tomorrow and have paid first months rent with no lease signed.

 I'm urging them to slow this process down and do their research first because their are several red flags. The owners are transferring the previous security deposit over to the new tenants without even going over damages. Can the owners return the rent and slow this process down at all? Or would their be legal repercussions if they do background checks and they find out that they don't want to rent to these people? These are dear friends of mine and I would hate to see them go through an eviction or have to cover two mortgages. HELP PLEASE!