Q: A friend had their apartment shot into. Can they break their lease without penalty for safety reasons?

A: Your friend needs to pull out their lease and carefully review any term or provision that may help them support an early termination. There is no general right to terminate a lease based on the happening of a single criminal event (if it was a criminal event). An argument might be made that the landlord has knowingly and/or recklessly allowed a criminal nuisance issue to arise, or has failed to take reasonable precautions to address known criminal activity in and around the apartment community. Under many leases, a landlord grants itself the power to immediately terminate a lease and evict a tenant or their guests for discharging a firearm or for engaging in criminal activity, or who may be deemed to reasonably pose a threat to other residents, so if the landlord failed to take action against another tenant responsible for discharging the weapon that caused the bullet to enter your friend's apartment, your friend might use their failure to enforce such terms of the lease against that tenant as a breach of an implied obligation under your friend's lease to act in accordance with that provision for the protection of other tenants. A judge would have to agree with that argument. There should also be an addendum to the lease adopting certain protections and regulations imposed by Montgomery County Code (or whatever county your friend is located in). For instance, in Montgomery County, leases must provide notice of a tenant's right to early termination if they are victims of domestic violence, have a medical conditions that requires nursing home residency, or for "some other reasonable cause beyond your control." Admittedly, the latter reason is quite vague. Even under this provision, 30 day's notice is required to terminate early.