diff --git a/src/main/java/org/javarosa/core/model/FormDef.java b/src/main/java/org/javarosa/core/model/FormDef.java
index b060b1904..e9832ab0f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/javarosa/core/model/FormDef.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/javarosa/core/model/FormDef.java
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ public boolean isRepeatRelevant(TreeReference repeatRef) {
             TreeReference parentPath = templNode.getParent().getRef().genericize();
             TreeElement parentNode = mainInstance
                 .resolveReference(parentPath.contextualize(repeatRef));
-            relev = parentNode.isRelevant() && templNode.isRelevant();
+            relev = parentNode != null && parentNode.isRelevant() && templNode.isRelevant();
         }
 
         return relev;
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/javarosa/core/model/test/FormDefTest.java b/src/test/java/org/javarosa/core/model/test/FormDefTest.java
index 36ba11c26..69930e0e4 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/javarosa/core/model/test/FormDefTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/javarosa/core/model/test/FormDefTest.java
@@ -266,6 +266,34 @@ public void nestedRepeatRelevance_updatesBasedOnParentPosition() throws IOExcept
         scenario.next();
         assertThat(scenario.refAtIndex(), is(getRef("/data/outer[0]/inner[0]")));
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void innerRepeatGroupIsIrrelevant_whenItsParentRepeatGroupDoesNotExist() throws IOException, XFormParser.ParseException {
+        Scenario scenario = Scenario.init("Nested repeat relevance", html(
+            head(
+                title("Nested repeat relevance"),
+                model(
+                    mainInstance(t("data id=\"nested-repeat-relevance\"",
+                        t("outer",
+                            t("inner",
+                                t("q1")
+                            )
+                        )
+                    ))
+                )),
+            body(
+                repeat("/data/outer",
+                    repeat("/data/outer/inner",
+                        input("/data/outer/inner/q1")
+                    )
+                )
+            )));
+
+
+        FormDef formDef = scenario.getFormDef();
+        // outer[1] does not exist at this moment, we only have outer[0]. Checking if its inner repeat group is relevant should be possible and return false.
+        assertThat(formDef.isRepeatRelevant(getRef("/data/outer[1]/inner[0]")), is(false));
+    }
     //endregion
 
     @Test