diff --git a/src/util/spell_checker.cpp b/src/util/spell_checker.cpp
index a9fc3aed..ac9780a3 100644
--- a/src/util/spell_checker.cpp
+++ b/src/util/spell_checker.cpp
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Includes
 
-#include <util/prec.hpp>
-#include <util/spell_checker.hpp>
-#include <util/string.hpp>
+#include <util/prec.hpp>
+#include <util/spell_checker.hpp>
+#include <util/string.hpp>
 #include <util/io/package_manager.hpp>
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Spell checker : construction
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ bool SpellChecker::convert_encoding(const String& word, CharBuffer& out) {
 	}
 	// convert encoding
 	out = fixed.mb_str(encoding);
-	if (*out == '\0') {
+	if (!out || *out == '\0') {
 		// If encoding fails we get an empty string, since the word was not empty this can never happen
 		// words that can't be encoded are not in the dictionary, so they are wrong.
 		return false;