My daughter just signed a lease (which I co-signed). Someone attempted to break into the house while she was there - she heard them breaking the window, yelled and called 911. The police told her and her roommate that, based on the circumstances, they thought it was a "predator" and not a random act. They could not live there under these circumstances, but is
this a legal basis for breaking a lease?

Of course they can live there, get a security system, a dog?

If you owned or had just bought a 200,000 home and it was broken into, could you make the seller take it back?

No this is not legal reason to break a lease, you are obligated to continue to pay the lease on the property.

I agree with Father Chuck's advice. Not a valid reason, legally, to break their lease.

I would be curious what made the police think it was not a random break-in attempt. If it's someone who was targeting them specifically what makes them, or you or the police think that this person won't just follow them to their next residence?

All of that said, as a landlord & a mother, if I had tenants in this situation and they were willing to make things right with me I'd work with them and try to re-rent the place. I've found that once tenants have made up their minds they don't want to live somewhere anymore for whatever reason they usually aren't very good tenants any more. It could also be a liability if something happened to them on my property. And most importantly, if it was my girls I would hope to have a sympathetic landlord willing to work with me. I would expect you to: cover any and all costs associated with re-renting the property (advertising, travel, my time, etc), be responsible for the rent of the unit up until the day a new tenant started paying rent, and return the unit to the exact condition it was in when you took possession (or pay to have that happen). That's the minimum. You'll typically loose your deposit if you break a lease and there can be other re-letting charges that landlords can charge "just because" the lease allows it.

Read your lease carefully and see what it has to say.
Karla in TX

The only time I ever broke a lease was after a 5 foot barrel shaped icicle smashed through my living room window onto my couch. I live in the snow belt and icicle-zillas like that aren't uncommon. It turned out a maintenance man was going around and prodding them down without protecting the apartment. Long story short, I proved that it was an unfit and/or hazardous place to live and legally broke the lease.

The only way you could ever get out of this was if you could prove that they in some way endangered your daughter or were somehow responsible for the attack, which they were not. I've swapped with other tenants before under similar circumstances as stated by rockinmommy. I think that might be about the closest thing you can do besides pulling them out of the apartment and keep paying.

No its not grounds for breaking the lease. So you best bet is to sublet or negotiate a buyout.