Short answer. Not if it impairs your use of it. Civil Code Article 1661 forbids a lessor from altering the form of the leased property in a way that impairs the use for which it was leased. Changes that do not interfere with that use are not what this article prohibits.
What the law says
The lessor cannot alter the form of the thing leased in such a way as to impair the use to which the thing is devoted under the terms of the lease.
Civil Code, Article 1661 — Lessor Cannot Alter the Thing. Read the full provision →
The test is impairment of your use, not change itself
Article 1661 does not ban alterations outright — it bans a specific kind: altering the property “in such a way as to impair the use to which the thing is devoted under the terms of the lease.” The question is not whether the landlord touched the property at all, but whether whatever was done gets in the way of what the lease entitles you to use the property for. Cosmetic or unrelated changes that leave your use intact fall outside what this article restricts.
The use has to be what the lease actually provides for
This protection is anchored to “the use to which the thing is devoted under the terms of the lease,” meaning the purpose the lease itself defines — residential occupancy, a particular kind of commercial operation, or whatever else the parties agreed the space was for. An alteration is measured against that specific, agreed use, not against some general standard of what makes a property nicer or worse to live or work in.
What kinds of alterations tend to cross the line
Blocking access central to how the space is used, removing or disabling facilities the leased purpose depends on, or reconfiguring the property in a way that makes the agreed use impossible or substantially harder are the kinds of changes this article is aimed at. A landlord undertaking work elsewhere on a building, or making improvements that leave your leased space and its use functionally unaffected, is a different situation from one that reaches into your use itself.
What to do if this happens to you
If a landlord is altering the property in a way that is genuinely interfering with the use your lease guarantees, the impairment itself — not simply your dissatisfaction with the change — is what Article 1661 addresses. Document what has been altered, how it affects your actual use of the space under the lease, and when the change occurred, since the strength of a claim under this article rests on showing that specific link between the alteration and the impaired use.
Urgent repairs are a separate, allowed exception
Article 1661 is not the whole picture. Where repairs on the leased property genuinely cannot wait until the lease ends, a tenant has to tolerate the disruption even though it is annoying and even if part of the premises becomes unusable while the work is done. That tolerance is not open-ended, though: if the work drags on past forty days, the rent owed is reduced for the time and portion of the property the tenant was deprived of, and if it leaves a dwelling unit uninhabitable, the tenant may end the lease outright instead of enduring it.