diff --git a/src/api-messagetag.c b/src/api-messagetag.c
index 2f04ef49a..2ac6ea0e8 100644
--- a/src/api-messagetag.c
+++ b/src/api-messagetag.c
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ MessageTagHandler *MessageTagHandlerAdd(Module *module, MessageTagHandlerInfo *m
 		/* New message tag handler */
 		m = safe_alloc(sizeof(MessageTagHandler));
 		safe_strdup(m->name, mreq->name);
+		AddListItem(m, mtaghandlers);
 	}
 	/* Add or update the following fields: */
 	m->owner = module;
@@ -101,8 +102,6 @@ MessageTagHandler *MessageTagHandlerAdd(Module *module, MessageTagHandlerInfo *m
 	if (m->clicap_handler)
 		m->clicap_handler->mtag_handler = m;
 
-	AddListItem(m, mtaghandlers);
-
 	if (module)
 	{
 		ModuleObject *mobj = safe_alloc(sizeof(ModuleObject));