diff --git a/src/core/dhcp/nm-dhcp-helper.c b/src/core/dhcp/nm-dhcp-helper.c
index 78db617c6a..213d94965a 100644
--- a/src/core/dhcp/nm-dhcp-helper.c
+++ b/src/core/dhcp/nm-dhcp-helper.c
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ do_notify:
     success = FALSE;
 
 out:
-    if (!g_dbus_connection_flush_sync(connection, NULL, &error_flush)) {
+    if (connection && !g_dbus_connection_flush_sync(connection, NULL, &error_flush)) {
         _LOGE("could not flush D-Bus connection: %s", error_flush->message);
         /* if we considered this a success so far, don't fail because of this. */
     }