Dead animal smell, who is responsible?

[Justin Holmes]

I live out of state and do not use a property manager for this property in particular (I use PM on other properties, just doing a trial of no PM).. I have a tenant who has mentioned a foul odor coming from under the house and has asked me to send someone by to go under the house and see if a rodent has died. I feel like this is definitely on the tenant since this has occurred 2 months after they have moved in, but not 100% sure.  Whose responsibility is this? The landlord or tenant. State is Alabama. Thanks in advance.

[Adam Martin]

I'd say this one is on you 99% of the time.  When charging the tenant for something ask yourself, what did they do to cause the damage and what could have been done to prevent it by the tenant.  This is just one of those things that happens and short of it being the family cat or dog this one is on you and even then I don't know if I have it in me to charge for a family pet.