diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/ImportTsv.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/ImportTsv.java
index b54e3ea6e2d..6d3f4c59c48 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/ImportTsv.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/ImportTsv.java
@@ -43,10 +43,8 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Admin;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Connection;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.ConnectionFactory;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HBaseAdmin;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Put;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Table;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.ImmutableBytesWritable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Base64;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
@@ -99,6 +97,7 @@ public class ImportTsv extends Configured implements Tool {
   final static String DEFAULT_MULTIPLE_ATTRIBUTES_SEPERATOR = ",";
   final static Class DEFAULT_MAPPER = TsvImporterMapper.class;
   public final static String CREATE_TABLE_CONF_KEY = "create.table";
+  public final static String NO_STRICT_COL_FAMILY = "no.strict";
 
   public static class TsvParser {
     /**
@@ -450,6 +449,32 @@ public class ImportTsv extends Configured implements Tool {
               }
             }
             try (HTable table = (HTable)connection.getTable(tableName)) {
+              boolean noStrict = conf.getBoolean(NO_STRICT_COL_FAMILY, false);
+              // if no.strict is false then check column family
+              if(!noStrict) {
+                ArrayList<String> unmatchedFamilies = new ArrayList<String>();
+                Set<String> cfSet = getColumnFamilies(columns);
+                HTableDescriptor tDesc = table.getTableDescriptor();
+                for (String cf : cfSet) {
+                  if(tDesc.getFamily(Bytes.toBytes(cf)) == null) {
+                    unmatchedFamilies.add(cf);
+                  }
+                }
+                if(unmatchedFamilies.size() > 0) {
+                  ArrayList<String> familyNames = new ArrayList<String>();
+                  for (HColumnDescriptor family : table.getTableDescriptor().getFamilies()) {
+                    familyNames.add(family.getNameAsString());
+                  }
+                  String msg =
+                      "Column Families " + unmatchedFamilies + " specified in " + COLUMNS_CONF_KEY
+                      + " does not match with any of the table " + tableName
+                      + " column families " + familyNames + ".\n"
+                      + "To disable column family check, use -D" + NO_STRICT_COL_FAMILY
+                      + "=true.\n";
+                  usage(msg);
+                  System.exit(-1);
+                } 
+              }
               job.setReducerClass(PutSortReducer.class);
               Path outputDir = new Path(hfileOutPath);
               FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(job, outputDir);
@@ -494,6 +519,17 @@ public class ImportTsv extends Configured implements Tool {
   private static void createTable(Admin admin, TableName tableName, String[] columns)
       throws IOException {
     HTableDescriptor htd = new HTableDescriptor(tableName);
+    Set<String> cfSet = getColumnFamilies(columns);
+    for (String cf : cfSet) {
+      HColumnDescriptor hcd = new HColumnDescriptor(Bytes.toBytes(cf));
+      htd.addFamily(hcd);
+    }
+    LOG.warn(format("Creating table '%s' with '%s' columns and default descriptors.",
+      tableName, cfSet));
+    admin.createTable(htd);
+  }
+  
+  private static Set<String> getColumnFamilies(String[] columns) {
     Set<String> cfSet = new HashSet<String>();
     for (String aColumn : columns) {
       if (TsvParser.ROWKEY_COLUMN_SPEC.equals(aColumn)
@@ -504,13 +540,7 @@ public class ImportTsv extends Configured implements Tool {
       // we are only concerned with the first one (in case this is a cf:cq)
       cfSet.add(aColumn.split(":", 2)[0]);
     }
-    for (String cf : cfSet) {
-      HColumnDescriptor hcd = new HColumnDescriptor(Bytes.toBytes(cf));
-      htd.addFamily(hcd);
-    }
-    LOG.warn(format("Creating table '%s' with '%s' columns and default descriptors.",
-      tableName, cfSet));
-    admin.createTable(htd);
+    return cfSet;
   }
 
   /*
@@ -556,7 +586,8 @@ public class ImportTsv extends Configured implements Tool {
       "  -D" + JOB_NAME_CONF_KEY + "=jobName - use the specified mapreduce job name for the import\n" +
       "  -D" + CREATE_TABLE_CONF_KEY + "=no - can be used to avoid creation of table by this tool\n" +
       "  Note: if you set this to 'no', then the target table must already exist in HBase\n" +
-      "\n" +
+      "  -D" + NO_STRICT_COL_FAMILY + "=true - ignore column family check in hbase table. " +
+      "Default is false\n\n" +
       "For performance consider the following options:\n" +
       "  -Dmapreduce.map.speculative=false\n" +
       "  -Dmapreduce.reduce.speculative=false";
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestImportTsv.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestImportTsv.java
index 7607c78381f..3844a64d5c4 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestImportTsv.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TestImportTsv.java
@@ -187,6 +187,23 @@ public class TestImportTsv implements Configurable {
     doMROnTableTest(util, FAMILY, null, args, 3);
     util.deleteTable(table);
   }
+  
+  @Test
+  public void testBulkOutputWithAnExistingTableNoStrictTrue() throws Exception {
+    String table = "test-" + UUID.randomUUID();
+    // Prepare the arguments required for the test.
+    Path hfiles = new Path(util.getDataTestDirOnTestFS(table), "hfiles");
+    String[] args = new String[] {
+        "-D" + ImportTsv.COLUMNS_CONF_KEY + "=HBASE_ROW_KEY,FAM:A,FAM:B",
+        "-D" + ImportTsv.SEPARATOR_CONF_KEY + "=\u001b",
+        "-D" + ImportTsv.BULK_OUTPUT_CONF_KEY + "=" + hfiles.toString(),
+        "-D" + ImportTsv.NO_STRICT_COL_FAMILY + "=true",
+        table
+    };
+    util.createTable(TableName.valueOf(table), FAMILY);
+    doMROnTableTest(util, FAMILY, null, args, 3);
+    util.deleteTable(table);
+  }
 
   @Test
   public void testJobConfigurationsWithTsvImporterTextMapper() throws Exception {