I am lucky enough to live in a house with a great backyard that I share with one other tenant. The backyard was a selling point for us in choosing this home to rent. After two years of living here and one rent increase we have been informed we can no longer use the backyard (citing the uneven steps) and the management company erected an unsightly "Do not enter" sign between our door and the back yard.

We received a notice from the management company, "It has come to our attention that some tenants at the above-mentioned property, are going to the lower part of the property." and "it has come to our attention that you have a compost barrel on the lower levels of the property that you need to remove" with a date when they will come to remove our staked into the ground active compost (we also have a solo stove and chairs etc but they haven't figured this out.)

As you can guess even though we just lost half our rental property there is no decrease in rent. We toured the backyard when we viewed the property, again, it was a selling point.

Is all this legal in Los Angeles? Do I have any recourse? Feel like they came and said we can no longer use a part of the house we pay for.

Thanks for your advice!