diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79236f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+chardet
diff --git a/routeros_api/api_structure.py b/routeros_api/api_structure.py
index 7899956..09ff78e 100644
--- a/routeros_api/api_structure.py
+++ b/routeros_api/api_structure.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 import ipaddress
 import re
 
+import chardet
+
 
 class Field(object):
     __metaclass__ = abc.ABCMeta
@@ -28,6 +30,8 @@ def get_mikrotik_value(self, string):
         return string.encode()
 
     def get_python_value(self, bytes):
+        if bytes:
+            return bytes.decode(chardet.detect(bytes)['encoding'])
         return bytes.decode()
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_resource.py b/tests/test_resource.py
index 90ada5d..ff68766 100644
--- a/tests/test_resource.py
+++ b/tests/test_resource.py
@@ -68,3 +68,13 @@ def test_boolean_resource_set(self):
         communicator.call.assert_called_with(
             '/boolean/', 'set', arguments={'boolean': b'yes'}, queries={},
             additional_queries=())
+
+    def test_unicode_decode_error(self):
+        string = structure.StringField
+        output = string.get_python_value(string,bytes=b'\xc2')
+        self.assertEqual(output, 'Â')
+
+    def test_blank_decode_byte(self):
+        string = structure.StringField
+        output = string.get_python_value(string,bytes=b'')
+        self.assertEqual(output, '')