Line #30 Main/CrankyLandlord


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6	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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13	[[quoteright:289:[[ComicBook/TheMask https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/21d2e07959d5c893337336d690150db6.jpg]]]]
14
15	->'''Mr. Shickadance:''' ''Ventuuraaa''!\
16	'''Ace Ventura:''' [''whispering''] Yes, Satan? [''turns around''] Oh, I'm sorry, sir. You sounded like someone else.\
17	'''Mr. Shickadance:''' Never mind the wisecracks, Ventura. [''coughs in Ace's face'']...You owe me rent.
18	-->-- ''[[Film/AceVentura Ace Ventura: Pet Detective]]''
19
20	The landlord that ''hates'' tenants, and he especially hates the hero, whom he considers a no-good scum of the earth.
21
22	Similarly to NosyNeighbor, this character is always on the lookout to catch the hero doing something against the house rules.
23
24	Pretty much anything below being a model tenant will earn the landlord's scorn and an infuriated visit to the offending tenant's apartment: making a noise, coming home too late, bringing another person home, etc.
25
26	A common trope is that the tenant is late with the house-rent, and has to argue at length with the landlord to be allowed a few days' respite. There are far more female than male examples of this type of character found in fiction.
27
28	Compare CrankyNeighbor. Contrast DropInLandlord, who is far more comedic and tries to befriend the cast.
29
30	[[noreallife]]
31	----
32	!!Examples:
33
34	[[foldercontrol]]
35
36	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
37	* Kanae from ''Anime/{{Classicaloid}}'' is a rare and benevolent case of a main character fitting this trope. While she doesn't exactly hate her tenants, she's frequently frustrated by their destructive antics and refusal to listen to the house rules. She often demands that the freeloaders pay rent, and threatens to kick them out when she's really pissed. Unsurprisingly, she's the OnlySaneMan.
38	* The landlady in ''Manga/CrayonShinChan''. Not unjustified as Shin really ''is'' a terror.
39	* Dr. Chaos's tenant in ''Manga/GhostSweeperMikami'', due to him never really paying his rent. She does have some PetTheDog moments in the "magic sweeping brooms" episode of the anime.
40	* Surprisingly for this trope, the protagonist's landlord in ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'' actually kicks him out after catching him with a girl in his apartment. Surprising in that it sticks: He's evicted for good and has to find a new home while taking care of his new MagicalGirlfriend. However the landlord is nice enough to give him his deposit back, since he was a good tenant until then.
41	* Sumi's former landlady in ''Manga/SteppingOnRoses'' qualifies, though not without justification: The gang of adopted children Sumi's brother brings home with him ''are'' extremely noisy, and Sumi and her brother ''are'' well behind on their rent payments.
42	* ''Manga/YouAreBeingSummonedAzazel'': Kanetomo, Akutabe's landlady, arrives to his apartment angry that the agency's demon summoning is noisy and stinky and just barges in, citing that he is late on his payments (even if by her admission Akutabe has always paid on time; Rinko tells her that she will be paid, just not right now, and Kanetomo growls out a "that's what they always say!") and ransacks the place to get the payment immediately, stealing all of the money in Rinko's purse (Rinko protests but Kanetomo gets in her face [[NightmareFace with a scary visage of her own]] and says "this is my building and I can do whatever I want!". She also is upset that Rinko only has 3000 yen on her person, but she pockets them all the same), [[EnemyEatsYourLunch the snacks everybody was saving, and drinks their tea]] before leaving yelling that they better get the money ASAP. Azazel and the other demons [[EveryoneHasStandards find her extremely rude]].
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Comic Books]]
46	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Scrooge [=McDuck=] is this to his nephew Donald, forcing him to do a number of ridiculous jobs and chores or be evicted. {{Justified\|Trope}} in that Donald, being often jobless, tends to be behind by months or even years with the rent alongside other debts (stories where Donald manages to pay off all his debts present it as a rare occurrence and have Scrooge surprised by it).
47	* ''ComicBook/SinCity'': Averted, as Dwight and Wallace's landlady was actually pretty sweet and wanted both men to get a nice girlfriend.
48	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Peter Parker's second apartment, the one for much of the [[TheSeventies 1970s]] and [[TheEighties 1980s]], has a nasty landlady named Mamie Muggins. She was cranky, judgmental, and quick to issue threats. Though sometimes she showed a softer side, helping to furnish an apartment or being a protective aunt to her favorite niece.
49	* ''ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}}'': The series had an unusual subversion in Morris and Ida Epstein, the owners of the apartment building Sleepwalker's human host Rick Sheridan lived in. Rick lived rent-free in his apartment in exchange for being the building janitor and superintendent, doing things like fixing leaks, painting rooms and cleaning up broken glass. Sleepwalker being trapped in Rick's mind hindered his ability to do his job, to the point where a frustrated Morris threatened to replace him and finally did. The subversion is that Morris actually had a justifiable reason for being upset with Rick and gave him multiple warnings before firing him, even as Ida kept defending him.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Fan Works]]
53	* In ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'', Peter's landlord, Ditkovich, sends the bill in big sharpie marked, ''"WHERE'S MY MONEY PARKER!"'', and generally doesn't seem to have much patience for Peter.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
57	* Mr. Shickadance from the ''Film/AceVenturaPetDetective'' movie and video game, is a cranky old man who hates animals. Despite his warnings for Ace not to bring any work home, Ace secretly keeps more than a dozen housepets in his room, having trained the animals to hide when the landlord appears.
58	* Enid Borden, the [[SirSwearsALot foul-mouthed]] landlady in the 1987 ''Film/{{Dragnet}}'' movie. The same actress plays a nearly identical character in ''Film/NuttyProfessorIITheKlumps''.
59	* ''Film/TheGingerweedMan'': [[TheProtagonist The Gingerweed Man]]'s is Mr. Stedenko, a large, angry man to whom Gingy owes a bit of unpaid rent. Barbara manages to get rid of him by appealing to his American jingoism, telling him some of his other tenants are doing something that he doesn't like.
60	* In ''Film/GoodManners'', Clara's landlady Dona Amélia is first seen revealed to have stolen Clara's clothes just because she hasn't paid the rent yet, and later on feeds a steak to Joel even though Clara kept telling her that he was allergic to meat[[note]]He's not. Clara put him on a vegetarian diet throughout his life because she's worried meat could affect his lycanthropy, [[spoiler: and it does]][[/note]].
61	* Mr. [=McCleery=] from ''Film/TheGraduate'', who can't stand agitators or men that do indecent things to young women. When Mr. Robinson confronts Ben about his flings with Mrs. Robinson, he threatens to take legal action against Ben if he ever sees Elaine again, which prompts Mr. [=McCleery=] to evict Ben from his boarding house.
62	* A scene in ''Film/{{Kingpin}}'': Roy cannot pay his rent, and his hysterical landlady threatens to call the police. [[spoiler:A desperate Roy is forced to play the [[PizzaBoySpecialDelivery "I'm sure that we can work something out"]] card.]]
63	* In ''Film/KungFuHustle'', the landlord isn't cranky at all, while he's the HenpeckedHusband to the landlady, who's cranky to most of the tenants.
64	* Mrs. Peenman from ''Film/TheMask''. Stanley lives in fear of her, while he also takes revenge whenever he changes into his alter ego, the Mask.
65	* Tony Hancock's angry landlady Mrs Cravat in ''Film/TheRebel'', who objects to Hancock's art, especially his sculpture of a naked woman.
66	--> '''Mrs Cravat:''' If that's not out of my house, and you with it, I'll call the police and have you evicted! Those are my last words, OUT! All of it! Turning my house into a rubbish dump.
67	* In addition to being cranky, the landlord in ''Film/{{Repulsion}}'' also is a creep who tries to force himself on the heroine.
68	* Mr. Ditkovich in the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' movies is usually seen hounding Peter for rent money, and at one point takes all of the money Peter has (because he pulled out the bills from his pocket) before Peter can finish saying that he needs it to purchase some other stuff he needs. He does however prove to be a closet JerkWithAHeartOfGold in the third film as he immediately realizes that something is wrong when a symbiote-infected Peter snaps angrily at him, as he knows Peter is a nice guy and would never act that way [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness unless he was in serious trouble]]. His name is a reference to Creator/SteveDitko, Spider-Man's co-creator.
69	* Mrs. Davis from the live-action Disney film ''Film/ThatDarnCat!'', who also can count as a [[NosyNeighbor Nosy Neighbor]] as she lives downstairs from her tenants, two men whom she suspects of sheltering a woman in their apartment, unaware they are actually bank robbers holding a woman hostage.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Literature]]
73	* In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', Fred and Nobby, and later Carrot and Angua, have to investigate an apartment rented to a dead wannabe assassin by a Cranky Landlady. She demands the rent in advance (especially from Nobby, although that's probably a smart move), and tells both ThoseTwoGuys and Carrot "No cooking, no music, no women, no pets." (The last two ''both'' present problems for Angua, who has to sneak into the apartment as a werewolf. She doesn't get caught though.)
74	* Mrs. Inger in the third book of the ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'', though she's only present for the first chapter before the cast sneaks out their window in the middle of the night and leave town.
75	* ''Literature/LosingJoesPlace'': Plotnick the landlord is a haughty {{Jerkass}} who is always insulting his tenants and making them pay for damage that is his fault.
76	* ''Script/{{Migraine}}'': Ken's landlord Sanchez expresses visceral delight at the thought of Ken dying on the streets in the cold of winter.
77	* ''Literature/SamTheCatDetective'':
78	** Local apartment owner Horton F. [[MeaningfulName Meany]] is described as quite a sourpuss. His wrath focuses more on his wrongfully accused employee than his tenants, but he also does any repairs they want bad, cheap, and fast.
79	** Casper Gutless owns several apartment buildings, doesn't tolerate tenants being behind on their rent, and dangles the threat of eviction over one shop owner to make him help Gutless with an illegal scheme.
80
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
84	* Miriam Fry from ''Series/AgentCarter'' treats her tenants like they were school girls in a dormitory rather than adults living on their own, the way she strictly controls the schedules of the girls in her boarding house and forbids men higher than the first floor.
85	* The Mexican comedy ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' had Señor Barriga ("Mister Belly"), the fat owner of the neighborhood the characters lived in, who would occasionally show up to collect the rent. Despite his gruff appearance, Barriga was actually a nice man--it's just that characters like Chavo and Don Ramon unintentionally provoked his anger almost all the time (and Chavo ''always'' hurt him somehow whenever he walked into the neighborhood).
86	* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E9NightTerrors Night Terrors]]" features a landlord as scary as anything else the Doctor sees that night.
87	* The (in)famous Funny or Die video "The Landlord" casts Creator/WillFerrell's daughter, barely past infancy at the time, as one of these to comedic effect.
88	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' has the landlord of Mohinder's apartment, who makes a few appearances (including TemporaryOnlineContent answering-machine messages) complaining about noise, late rent, and government spooks, being rude about Matt's weight and calling Mohinder's late father "crazy", and generally being cranky. He even seems to magically appear when he senses property damage.
89	-->"Mr. Suresh, you're late on your rent again. Even-up by Monday or I'm changing the locks."\
90	"Mr Suresh, I've had a ton of complaints about the noise coming from your apartment last week. I'm warning you 'cos you've been trouble since you moved in, keep it down or I'm kicking you out. If there's any damage it's coming out of your deposit."
91	* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': In "[[Recap/HoratioHornblowerS3E1Loyalty Loyalty]]", Mrs. Mason is Hornblower's Cranky Landlady. She's nervous when he owns her rent as officers starve on half-pay and is displeased that he goes to play cards. Even though he actually usually earns some money because he's a mathematical genius and skilled whist player. When he brings his friend Mr. Bush, she grunts whether he has money to pay her. Her daughter Maria (not very pretty and on her way to become an OldMaid) is crazy about him, which Mrs. Mason doesn't like either, because her husband was a sailor and died at service, and she might be angry at Hornblower because he's not interested in Maria romantically and considers her just a friend.
92	* ''Series/TheMonkees'' had a cranky landlord, Mr. Babbit.
93	* In an episode of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl had one of these back in the day. He found a walkie-talkie that she was able to hear through her hearing aid, and convinced her that he was {{God}}, taking advantage of her devout religiosity. As "God", Earl convinced her to be nicer to him, his then-wife, his brother, and their friends. Eventually she became a nun, and Earl had to tell her what he did because it was on the list, thus giving her a CrisisOfFaith.
94	* Harold Meaker was originally this in ''Series/{{Rentaghost}}'', being none too pleased at the idea of having ghosts as tenants, before being forced to take over the firm in later seasons.
95	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Time-travelers Picard and company take up residence in a boarding house in 1890s San Francisco in the "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow Time's Arrow]]" two-parter. When their landlady Mrs. Carmichael irately demands the long-overdue rent, Picard distracts her by offering her a role in his "acting troupe's" upcoming play ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''.
96	* Mr. Roper was somewhat like this toward Jack Tripper on ''Series/ThreesCompany''.
97	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'':
98	** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E8 Act Break]]", Maury Winkler and Harry's obnoxious landlord demands the two months' rent that they owe him on their office and threatens to evict them if he doesn't get it soon. He also enjoys mocking them because almost all of their 17 plays closed after one performance.
99	** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S3E22 The Mind of Simon Foster]]", the title character's landlord threatens to throw him out of his apartment if he does not pay his overdue rent by the next day. This forces Simon to accept the pawnbroker Mr. Quint's offer to [[TransferableMemory buy his memory of his high school graduation]]. When Simon pays the $625 that he owes, the landlord proves himself to be corrupt as he illegally demands the next month's rent in advance. He tells Simon that if he goes to the Housing Commission to complain, he could find that his apartment has been given to someone else due to a "clerical error" when he returns.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Manhua]]
103	* A few ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' strips would have Master Q staying in a rented apartment, only to be constantly nagged or pursued by his landlady on the rent. One strip had Master Q deliberately knowing the rent is due by the end of the month, so he deliberately stayed out late, coming back at two midnight, gloating to himself that the landlady's asleep... [[LightswitchSurprise only to see the landlady waiting for him after flipping on the lights]].
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
107	* Wrestling/{{M\|LW}}ajor League Wrestling has Salina de la Renta, an evil manager who rose up the ranks to become an executive producer. After losing her position she crossed the line by tricking interviewer Alicia Atout into signing an illegal contract that amounted to Atout's slavery. Atout dropped legal charges in exchange for making the land lady pay ''her'' rent for four years(among other things).[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Video Games]]
110	* In ''VideoGame/AlwaysSometimesMonsters'', your landlord's sick of waiting for you to get your act together and pay your rent. You owe him $500, and if you don't get it together, you're outta there!
111	* ''VideoGame/CarteBlanche'''s Mrs. Malaki is protagonist Edgar's landlady. She is nosy with regards to a modernist poet perpetually locked in her building's bathroom, pesters Edgar about paying the rent despite the fact that he payed it the previous day, is a widow with a MotorMouth when talking about her past, and admits that the building's horrible state is the reason she doesn't stay in it.
112	--> '''Mrs. Malaki:''' No shouting... No posters... No bringing back women... No bleeding... No drinking... No blasphemy... ...and by the way, the bathroom is at the end of the hallway.
113	* ''VideoGame/ClamMan'': Clam Man's landlord is planning to move out, while lying to his tenants by saying he's just going on vacation. To pay for this, he suddenly increases everyone's rent by six times, and he has ''no'' sympathy for the fact that Clam Man just lost his job. Although the landlord never appears in person (instead relying on his daughter to tell the tenants about their increased rent), Clam Man describes him as intimidating.
114	* Inverted in ''VideoGame/FantasyLife''. Pam is a motherly figure to the player and even gives the player candy!
115	* ''VideoGame/RandalsMonday'': Mr. Marconi just wants his money from Randal, and Randal missing rent seems to be a common occurrence.
116	* ''VisualNovel/YourBoyfriend'': Don Williams, the player's landlord, spends most of his screen-time with agitation towards tenants delaying their rent.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Webcomics]]
120	* In ''Webcomic/DustpitFollies'', the landlord will hound the main characters till they pay the rent, even if that means breaking a hole in the roof to drop in.
121	* Eulice [[ShoutOut Deville]] of ''Webcomic/{{Menage A 3}} ''. When Gary introduces his new roommates, she ignores their pleasantries and shouts, "JOBS!?" She can detect a deadbeat tenant a mile away. She once tracked Gary across the city and found him hiding in a restaurant broom closet. She reacts to [[ComicStrip/Blondie1930 Mr. Dithers firing Dagwood yet again]] with an EvilLaugh.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Web Original]]
125	* ''Blog/GaryLandlordOfTheFlies'': Exaggerated with Gary, whose relationship with his tenants is almost always deeply strained. He viciously insults several of them with little prompting, attempts to prevent them from retrieving their belongings when they leave or are evicted, and steals one tenant's luxury goods while he's in the hospital. Naturally, partway through the blog, it's noted that everyone had moved out of the house after hitting their breaking point with his behavior.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Western Animation]]
129	* Bullock's landlord in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' ''hated'' him, for reasons that were arguably justified, mainly his abrasive nature and the fact that his slovenly habits caused a major vermin problem in the building. The man ended up sending Bullock death threats in an effort to get him to move, coincidentally at the same time that a mobster that Bullock had put away years before was released on parole and tried to get revenge.
130	* ''WesternAnimation/EggheadRidesAgain'': At the start of the short, [[TheProtagonist Egghead]] is jumping around his room in a boarding house, hooping and hollering loudly. The noise he makes irks his landlord so much that he kicks him out.
131	* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Grandpa Phil. While normally he was either a CoolOldGuy or CloudCuckooLander, he would often get grumpy at his tenants when their antics annoyed him.
132	* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldsBabesAndBullets'': [[spoiler:The big guy who chases Sam turns out to be his landlord, who wants unpaid back rent.]]
133	* WesternAnimation/{{Pete}} is the Cranky Landlord at the ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse''. For some reason, he wants Mickey and the gang out of the club and he tries different plans to do it. Of course, he always fails.
134	* ''WesternAnimation/MrBean: The Animated Series'' had Ms. Wicket. (Though she did not appear in the live-action series, she was mentioned in the diary.)
135	* Thurgood Stubbs, the cranky superintendent of an inner city low-income tenement building, is the main character of ''WesternAnimation/ThePJs''. He has an antagonistic relationship with most of the other tenants, especially Mrs. Avery, who hates his guts.
136	* ''[[WesternAnimation/RockPaperScissorsNickelodeon Rock, Paper, Scissors]]'': Lou is Rock, Paper, and Scissors' grumpy, sarcastic landlord of their apartment, always shouting that he's going to raise the rent when the trio pesters him about a problem they're having.
137	* [[PunnyName Evictus]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheRomanHolidays''. His main reason from wanting to evict the Holidays is because they keep a pet lion in their apartment, which is against the terms of their lease.
138	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Behind the Laughter", Homer had a stint on Broadway as the landlord in ''Theatre/{{Rent}} II'', "Mr. Stinchley" (and for extra "evil" points Homer's role required him to dress in a DastardlyWhiplash fashion, mustache, EvilLaugh and all):
139	-->''Where is the rent?''
140	-->''I must have the rent!''
141	-->''Dollars, dimes and nickels,''
142	-->''I need them all right now!''
143	** Inverted in the episode "No Loan Again, Naturally", in which because of Homer's utterly idiotic financial sense they lose their home and Ned Flanders purchases it, making him the Simpsons' landlord. The moment Homer figures out that this means Ned has to do such things as fix the home if the family asks for it, he makes Ned's life utter hell.
144	* Clint Clobber was created by Creator/GeneDeitch for the Creator/{{Terrytoons}} studio in the late 1950s. He was superintendent and janitor for the Flamboyant Arms apartments, where anything that could go wrong for him did.
145	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CrankyLandlord