diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/WALFactory.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/WALFactory.java
index e1a16254224..3500bd0ff88 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/WALFactory.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/WALFactory.java
@@ -187,7 +187,11 @@ public class WALFactory {
     if (null != metaProvider) {
       metaProvider.close();
     }
-    provider.close();
+    // close is called on a WALFactory with null provider in the case of contention handling
+    // within the getInstance method.
+    if (null != provider) {
+      provider.close();
+    }
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/TestWALFactory.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/TestWALFactory.java
index b5fd6f41ed9..47b001aa73d 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/TestWALFactory.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/wal/TestWALFactory.java
@@ -152,6 +152,11 @@ public class TestWALFactory {
     TEST_UTIL.shutdownMiniCluster();
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void canCloseSingleton() throws IOException {
+    WALFactory.getInstance(conf).close();
+  }
+
   /**
    * Just write multiple logs then split.  Before fix for HADOOP-2283, this
    * would fail.