Tenants’ Rights During Renovations: Ensuring a Smooth and Fair Process

Renovations keep rental property safe, modern, and valuable — but they don’t suspend a tenant’s rights. In Los Angeles especially, an owner who skips a required notice, lets a contractor make a unit unlivable, or uses construction to pressure a tenant out can face rent reductions, relocation obligations, or harassment claims that carry triple damages. Here’s exactly what tenants are entitled to during renovations — and what owners have to do to stay on the right side of it.

Yes, You Can Renovate an Occupied Unit — Within Limits

A landlord has the right to renovate a building while tenants live there. What a landlord can’t do is treat construction as a blank check to ignore the rules. Throughout the work, tenants keep their core protections: proper notice before entry, a habitable unit, quiet enjoyment of their home, and — when the work is disruptive enough — relocation and the right to return. The bigger the project, the more of these obligations come into play.

Entry Notice: The 24-Hour Rule

Under California Civil Code § 1954, a landlord must give a tenant at least 24 hours’ written notice before entering for non-emergency repairs or renovation work, and entries should happen during normal business hours. A genuine emergency (a burst pipe, a gas leak) is the exception. Repeated or excessive entry — contractors coming and going at will — can itself cross the line into a violation of the tenant’s rights.

Maintaining Habitability and Quiet Enjoyment

While work is underway, the unit still has to be livable. That means essential services — water, electricity, and heat — stay functional; dust, debris, and hazardous materials like lead and asbestos are properly contained; and emergency exits and basic access remain clear. California law also recognizes an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment: tenants are entitled to use their home without unreasonable interference, which means scheduling noisy work at reasonable hours and keeping disruption to what’s genuinely necessary.

If renovation work pushes a unit below the habitability standard and isn’t addressed, the tenant has the same remedies they’d have for any other failure to maintain the property. (See our guide on how long landlords have to fix problems in California.)

Rent Reductions When Use Is Impaired

If renovations significantly impair a tenant’s ability to use and enjoy the unit — a kitchen out of service for weeks, a room sealed off, no hot water — the tenant may be entitled to a temporary rent reduction. This is best understood as a potential legal entitlement, not merely a goodwill gesture. The fair approach is to assess the actual loss of use and prorate the rent accordingly, in writing, for the duration of the impairment.

When Tenants Must Temporarily Move: The Tenant Habitability Program

For larger projects in the City of Los Angeles, there’s a formal process. When an owner performs Primary Renovation Work — permitted structural, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical work, or abatement of hazardous materials — that will make a unit unlivable, the RSO’s Tenant Habitability Program requires the owner to file a Tenant Habitability Plan with the LA Housing Department and have it approved before the work starts.

From there, the owner pays for all temporary housing while the tenant continues paying their normal rent; displacement under 30 days means a hotel (within two miles), and 30 days or more means a comparable unit, with a per-diem option by agreement. Crucially, the tenant keeps their tenancy and the right to return to the completed unit. We cover the relocation rules and current dollar amounts in detail in when a landlord has to pay for a hotel room for a tenant.

You Can’t Use Renovations to Push Tenants Out

One of the most important limits: renovation can’t be a pretext to clear a building and re-rent at a higher price. Los Angeles’s Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance allows a “substantial remodel” as a no-fault eviction reason only under strict conditions (work serious enough to require the unit be vacated for at least 30 days, with permits), and the city has been moving to tighten that exception further. For rent-stabilized units, the just-cause remodel exception doesn’t apply at all — those tenants are protected through the Tenant Habitability Program and its right to return.

The Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance: A Serious Owner Risk

This is where renovation process becomes a real legal-exposure issue. LA’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance (TAHO) — which applies to all residential units, rent-controlled or not — prohibits a landlord from renovating or performing construction for the purpose of harassing a tenant, from failing to follow industry protocols that limit noise, dust, lead, or asbestos exposure, and from cutting off housing services.

The teeth are significant. As amended effective December 29, 2024, the ordinance added mandatory damages for the prevailing tenant. A tenant who wins can recover three times their compensatory damages (including for emotional distress), reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation (no less than $2,000), with each day a violation continues treated as a separate offense. In other words, a disruptive, sloppy, or pressure-tactic renovation isn’t just bad for tenant relations — it’s a path to substantial liability.

What This Means for Los Angeles Property Owners

Renovating an occupied building in LA is, at bottom, a compliance exercise: proper notice, maintained habitability, the right Tenant Habitability Plan filing, correct relocation, just-cause limits, and the anti-harassment rules. A single misstep — skipping the THP, botching a relocation, or a contractor who creates uninhabitable conditions — can stall the project and trigger penalties or claims.

This is exactly what professional management handles day to day. Lotus West Properties plans and runs renovations compliantly across nearly 100 properties throughout Los Angeles — serving proper notices, filing Tenant Habitability Plans, managing relocation, and keeping tenants informed so the work gets done without legal exposure. See how we work with owners, or call (323) 487-2650 for a free evaluation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a landlord renovate while I’m living there?

Yes, but the landlord must give proper notice, keep the unit habitable, respect quiet enjoyment, and — for major work that displaces you — follow the relocation rules.

How much notice does a landlord need to enter for renovations?

At least 24 hours’ written notice for non-emergency entry, during normal business hours.

Can I get a rent reduction during renovations?

Possibly. If the work significantly impairs your ability to use and enjoy the unit, a temporary rent reduction may be owed for the period of impairment.

Can a landlord evict me just to renovate?

Only under narrow conditions. The “substantial remodel” just-cause exception has strict requirements and is being tightened, and rent-stabilized tenants are instead protected by the Tenant Habitability Program, which preserves your right to return.

What if construction is being used to push me out?

That can violate the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, which allows a prevailing tenant to recover triple damages, attorney’s fees, and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

The Bottom Line

Renovations don’t pause tenant rights. In Los Angeles, that means 24-hour written notice to enter, maintained habitability and quiet enjoyment, possible rent reductions, the Tenant Habitability Program for work that displaces tenants, real limits on remodel-based evictions, and an anti-harassment ordinance with serious penalties. Plan the process correctly and renovations stay productive instead of becoming a liability.

Whether you’re an owner planning a project or a tenant trying to understand your rights, Lotus West Properties can help. Get in touch or call (323) 487-2650 — your first property evaluation is free.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and reflects California and Los Angeles rules as of 2026. Ordinances and penalty amounts change — verify the current rules with LAHD for your building and situation.

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Sources:

• California Civil Code § 1954 (entry) and §§ 1941–1941.1 (habitability)
• LA Housing Department — Tenant Habitability Program (LAMC § 152.06)
• City of LA Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance (LAMC § 165.03)
• City of LA Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance (TAHO), as amended December 29, 2024
• Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA)