diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
index 249a9a80c5..ba1ade2e3a 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
@@ -618,21 +618,12 @@ impl Tenant {
                 // Remote preload is complete.
                 drop(remote_load_completion);
 
-                let pending_deletion = {
-                    match DeleteTenantFlow::should_resume_deletion(
-                        conf,
-                        preload.as_ref().map(|p| p.deleting).unwrap_or(false),
-                        &tenant_clone,
-                    )
-                    .await
-                    {
-                        Ok(should_resume_deletion) => should_resume_deletion,
-                        Err(err) => {
-                            make_broken(&tenant_clone, anyhow::anyhow!(err));
-                            return Ok(());
-                        }
-                    }
-                };
+                let pending_deletion = DeleteTenantFlow::should_resume_deletion(
+                    conf,
+                    preload.as_ref().map(|p| p.deleting).unwrap_or(false),
+                    &tenant_clone,
+                )
+                .await;
 
                 info!("pending_deletion {}", pending_deletion.is_some());
 
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs
index 066f239ff0..6a4bb47f68 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/delete.rs
@@ -361,25 +361,17 @@ impl DeleteTenantFlow {
         conf: &'static PageServerConf,
         remote_mark_exists: bool,
         tenant: &Tenant,
-    ) -> Result<Option<DeletionGuard>, DeleteTenantError> {
-        let acquire = |t: &Tenant| {
+    ) -> Option<DeletionGuard> {
+        let tenant_id = tenant.tenant_id;
+
+        if remote_mark_exists || conf.tenant_deleted_mark_file_path(&tenant_id).exists() {
             Some(
-                Arc::clone(&t.delete_progress)
+                Arc::clone(&tenant.delete_progress)
                     .try_lock_owned()
                     .expect("we're the only owner during init"),
             )
-        };
-
-        if remote_mark_exists {
-            return Ok(acquire(tenant));
-        }
-
-        let tenant_id = tenant.tenant_id;
-        // Check local mark first, if its there there is no need to go to s3 to check whether remote one exists.
-        if conf.tenant_deleted_mark_file_path(&tenant_id).exists() {
-            Ok(acquire(tenant))
         } else {
-            Ok(None)
+            None
         }
     }