diff --git a/pre_commit_hooks/check_json.py b/pre_commit_hooks/check_json.py
index 8328cc7..f586fe9 100644
--- a/pre_commit_hooks/check_json.py
+++ b/pre_commit_hooks/check_json.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ def check_json(argv=None):
     for filename in args.filenames:
         try:
             simplejson.load(open(filename))
-        except simplejson.JSONDecodeError as exc:
+        except (simplejson.JSONDecodeError, UnicodeDecodeError) as exc:
             print('{0}: Failed to json encode ({1})'.format(filename, exc))
             retval = 1
     return retval
diff --git a/testing/resources/bad_json_latin1.nonjson b/testing/resources/bad_json_latin1.nonjson
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..3b39473
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/resources/bad_json_latin1.nonjson
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+    "é": 1,
+}
diff --git a/tests/check_json_test.py b/tests/check_json_test.py
index 18d1b66..996bfbb 100644
--- a/tests/check_json_test.py
+++ b/tests/check_json_test.py
@@ -6,8 +6,12 @@ from testing.util import get_resource_path
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(('filename', 'expected_retval'), (
     ('bad_json.notjson', 1),
+    ('bad_json_latin1.nonjson', 1),
     ('ok_json.json', 0),
 ))
-def test_check_json(filename, expected_retval):
+def test_check_json(capsys, filename, expected_retval):
     ret = check_json([get_resource_path(filename)])
     assert ret == expected_retval
+    if expected_retval == 1:
+        stdout, _ = capsys.readouterr()
+        assert filename in stdout