diff --git a/plugin/syntastic.vim b/plugin/syntastic.vim
index 5e841cfa..ad7358b5 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 = '3.9.0-31'
+let g:_SYNTASTIC_VERSION = '3.9.0-32'
 lockvar g:_SYNTASTIC_VERSION
 
 " Sanity checks {{{1
diff --git a/plugin/syntastic/balloons.vim b/plugin/syntastic/balloons.vim
index fdd70bfe..6fa2a16a 100644
--- a/plugin/syntastic/balloons.vim
+++ b/plugin/syntastic/balloons.vim
@@ -34,12 +34,11 @@ endfunction " }}}2
 " Reset the error balloons
 " @vimlint(EVL103, 1, a:loclist)
 function! g:SyntasticBalloonsNotifier.reset(loclist) abort " {{{2
-    let b:syntastic_private_balloons = {}
-    if has('balloon_eval')
+    if has('balloon_eval') && !empty(get(b:, 'syntastic_private_balloons', {}))
         call syntastic#log#debug(g:_SYNTASTIC_DEBUG_NOTIFICATIONS, 'balloons: reset')
-        unlet! b:syntastic_private_balloons
         set noballooneval
     endif
+    unlet! b:syntastic_private_balloons
 endfunction " }}}2
 " @vimlint(EVL103, 0, a:loclist)