Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Louisiana

Re: Can my landlord keep changing rules that are not in the lease?

You have two issues here, which are the practical and the legal. From a legal standpoint, if the lease is silent on a prohibition to place a basketball goal on the property rented, you probably have a right to do it (a careful review of the lease would be required before I could state that definitively).

The practical issue is that the landlord may simply be able to solve his problem by cancelling your lease when it comes to the end of the term. I suspect the term of your lease may be a year at most, and possibly month to month. In that case, if you draw a line in the sand regarding the basketball goal, the landlord can retaliate by simply not renewing the lease and forcing you to move when the lease term is up. You may have to weigh the hassle of moving when the lease term comes to an end with removing the basketball goal.

You might try to convince the landlord to allow the basketball goal to stay for the reasons set forth in your question (unsafe alternative areas to play), but it sounds like that will not do the trick. I seriously doubt you have unlimited options to renvew the lease (again, a review of the lease would be needed to determine this), so the landlord is likely holding a better hand on this matter. I'm sorry the news is not better.

P.S. I don't think he can force you to remove it in four days. If you decide to take it down, let him know and do your best to have it removed in a timely fashion. It's still possible the landlord will not renew the lease, but if you are a good paying tenant, he also may want to keep you.