Your landlord is completely within his legal rights to do that. One more reason why renting is not the smartest thing. Your best bet is to just talk to the guy and ask him politely to give you a little notice next time. If you go making demands...well, that's not the best way to go here.
On a completely different subject, any idea why he's fixing up the place? In my experience these things generally don't come out of the kindness in their hearts. Any chance he's fixing stuff up because he's about to sell it?
