Fly "infestation" - landlord deducting from deposit.

[ChocolateBiscuitCake]

Would like to get opinion on this if possible please, as been delivered a petty list by landlord before we get our deposit back.

I have posted before so won't bore you all with the back story but in essence, we rented rurally (village) and had the property professionally cleaned the day after we moved out. The property was vacant for 3 months (again long story, but we tried to pay upfront for last three months and landlord/agent made a mess of of it) and the day of the inventory, I hoovered up a lot of flies.

However, the landlord in this three months was in and out of the property so saw them.

He wants us to pay for the fly "infestation".

The property was spotless when we left (no food in fridge, bins empty etc).

Surely flies are just part of Summer and country living and live in the fabric of the house (i.e there was nothing for them to feed off in the house!).

Is the Landlord being an arse or am I overlooking something?

(for the avoidance of doubt, we live very cleanly and had a full time, live-in housekeeper…so really annoyed that LL suggesting the flies are our "fault"!).

Any thoughts, wise folk? And thank you for reading!

What sort of flies were they? If they were fruit/maggot flies, I can see a point. However, house flies/ crane flies are pretty innocent!

When was the inventory done? I think that checkout inventories fall to the tenant, so was it not possible to have it done earlier? Did the LL book the inventory so late? If the LL had sole access to the property after you moved out and before the inventory, that's pretty "convenient", isn't it?

Sorry, I should have added that the latter is an argument to put to the deposit protection scheme when you formally challenge the deductions (if it gets that far).

I guess the deposit is registered in a scheme? You should have received a certificate about the deposit.

My mothers house had a problem with cluster flies in September for a few weeks. They come in from the fields looking for somewhere to hibernate. She was in hospital at the time and we had to hoover up loads of them when we went to get her house ready for her going home. If its cluster flies it won't be your fault.

We have a cluster fly problem at the moment, just up in our attic. It's just one of those things. Speak to the council pest control about it to arm yourself with the facts and figures to present to your landlord.

So you left on say 1st June, but still had a tenancy over the property, the LL is in and out of the property and you did the last clean round and had the check out inventory done on 1st September?

raise a formal dispute with the deposit protection scheme concerned. They will tell him where to get off.