diff --git a/HTMLtree.c b/HTMLtree.c
index acdde75..6e8baf4 100644
--- a/HTMLtree.c
+++ b/HTMLtree.c
@@ -513,7 +513,10 @@
      */
     handler = htmlFindOutputEncoder(encoding);
     buf = xmlOutputBufferCreateFile(out, handler);
-    if (buf == NULL) return(0);
+    if (buf == NULL) {
+        xmlCharEncCloseFunc(handler);
+        return(0);
+    }
 
     htmlNodeDumpFormatOutput(buf, doc, cur, NULL, format);
 
@@ -563,8 +566,10 @@
     encoding = (const char *) htmlGetMetaEncoding(cur);
     handler = htmlFindOutputEncoder(encoding);
     buf = xmlAllocOutputBufferInternal(handler);
-    if (buf == NULL)
+    if (buf == NULL) {
+        xmlCharEncCloseFunc(handler);
 	return;
+    }
 
     htmlDocContentDumpFormatOutput(buf, cur, NULL, format);
 
@@ -1029,7 +1034,10 @@
     encoding = (const char *) htmlGetMetaEncoding(cur);
     handler = htmlFindOutputEncoder(encoding);
     buf = xmlOutputBufferCreateFile(f, handler);
-    if (buf == NULL) return(-1);
+    if (buf == NULL) {
+        xmlCharEncCloseFunc(handler);
+        return(-1);
+    }
     htmlDocContentDumpOutput(buf, cur, NULL);
 
     ret = xmlOutputBufferClose(buf);
@@ -1060,7 +1068,10 @@
     encoding = (const char *) htmlGetMetaEncoding(cur);
     handler = htmlFindOutputEncoder(encoding);
     buf = xmlOutputBufferCreateFilename(filename, handler, cur->compression);
-    if (buf == NULL) return(0);
+    if (buf == NULL) {
+        xmlCharEncCloseFunc(handler);
+        return(0);
+    }
 
     htmlDocContentDumpOutput(buf, cur, NULL);
 
@@ -1101,7 +1112,10 @@
      * save the content to a temp buffer.
      */
     buf = xmlOutputBufferCreateFilename(filename, handler, 0);
-    if (buf == NULL) return(0);
+    if (buf == NULL) {
+        xmlCharEncCloseFunc(handler);
+        return(0);
+    }
 
     htmlDocContentDumpFormatOutput(buf, cur, encoding, format);