diff --git a/autoload/syntastic/util.vim b/autoload/syntastic/util.vim
index 4074e69c..90216946 100644
--- a/autoload/syntastic/util.vim
+++ b/autoload/syntastic/util.vim
@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@ lockvar s:_float2str
 
 function! s:_getbufvar_dumb(buf, name, ...) abort " {{{2
     let ret = getbufvar(a:buf, a:name)
-    if a:0 && ret ==# ''
+    if a:0 && type(ret) == type('') && ret ==# ''
         unlet! ret
         let ret = a:1
     endif
diff --git a/plugin/syntastic.vim b/plugin/syntastic.vim
index 3b3b0696..b4efc42a 100644
--- a/plugin/syntastic.vim
+++ b/plugin/syntastic.vim
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ if has('reltime')
     lockvar! g:_SYNTASTIC_START
 endif
 
-let g:_SYNTASTIC_VERSION = '3.7.0-230'
+let g:_SYNTASTIC_VERSION = '3.7.0-231'
 lockvar g:_SYNTASTIC_VERSION
 
 " Sanity checks {{{1