If a dog damages the property or disturbs other tenants they should be financially responsible just like someone would have to install and then later remove their own grabs bars or accessible fixtures at their own cost (at least in CT).

In a very bad scenario, the structure is damaged, the land value is reduced (I heard that happened after one of the previous earthquakes here before) and there is still a mortgage payment every month with no rental income.

If you don't insulate the pipes for the tenant unit and there is a break and/or damage, it's not like you can charge the tenant for repairs.  

We got enough to rebuild the damage, and then sold the house.  

We hired a painter at our last turnover as they were there 2 years and it already needed a full paint job, so he listed the hole in the wall he had to repair and the excessive damage to certain rooms and split the bill accordingly, then charged the tenant's deposit for their part.  

You may want to look at getting them out of there before any crazy action against them, I can see them doing a bit of damage if they knew you were going to take them to court.

I'm pretty sure the smell (and maybe the obvious termite damage) led to the reduced sale price.After closing, my wife went down to kick off the rehab on the house.

I have an ice dam at one of my properties that did some damage due to lack of insulation so I was planning on going down to Home Depot and getting some insulation and the blower this weekend.

A lot of the maintenance you are going to experience with your rentals is just damage and wear from things being used.  

Your title insurance (depending on the state and type of policy you purchase) will generally cover you if for example the title company missed finding a lien when they did their search, and they will generally cover you to the extent of your damages...