Location: southern CA
I live in southern CA and I habitually put out some garden decorations by my front door. Usually some solar lights and picks with attached designs, ranging from cartoonish skulls and ghosts to mushrooms and frogs. My doormat also has cartoonish ghosts on it. I have done this for many years all year round, I have lived here for 12 years now.
My landlord came by recently and said I needed to remove the decorations and doormat “because they’re against her religion”, which is patently false. I used to be the same religion as her and there is no stipulation about any of those things (e g. Skulls, ghosts, frogs, mushrooms, etc) being taboo. I refused and told her I wouldn’t, the decorations are neither a safety hazard nor are they remotely in the way of landscaping, and they’re certainly not vulgar. She came by another day when I wasn’t home and began removing the decorations, and I caught her on the ring camera I have for the front door. I told her what she was doing was wrong, that she shouldn’t be doing that, and she made a veiled threat of “maybe [I] shouldn’t live here” but she immediately left, leaving the decorations she did pull up on my doormat.
At this point I consider this harassment. There has been no official communication from the property manager nor her daughter who is managing the day to day stuff. And there is nothing in the lease agreement that talks about her having authority to alter or remove things unless it’s a safety hazard, which again, they aren’t.
I’m not looking to cause any harm, I just want to be left alone and enjoy my decorations. Do I have legal recourse? What should I do?