diff --git a/source/request-as-event-emitter.ts b/source/request-as-event-emitter.ts
index acb66cfc7..b6925e4a9 100644
--- a/source/request-as-event-emitter.ts
+++ b/source/request-as-event-emitter.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import {ReadStream} from 'fs';
 import CacheableRequest = require('cacheable-request');
 import EventEmitter = require('events');
 import http = require('http');
@@ -15,6 +16,7 @@ import {createProgressStream} from './progress';
 import timedOut, {TimeoutError as TimedOutTimeoutError} from './utils/timed-out';
 import {GeneralError, NormalizedOptions, Response, requestSymbol} from './types';
 import urlToOptions from './utils/url-to-options';
+import pEvent = require('p-event');
 
 const setImmediateAsync = async (): Promise<void> => new Promise(resolve => setImmediate(resolve));
 const pipeline = promisify(stream.pipeline);
@@ -301,13 +303,17 @@ export default (options: NormalizedOptions): RequestAsEventEmitter => {
 	};
 
 	(async () => {
-		// Promises are executed immediately.
-		// If there were no `setImmediate` here,
-		// `promise.json()` would have no effect
-		// as the request would be sent already.
-		await setImmediateAsync();
-
 		try {
+			if (options.body instanceof ReadStream) {
+				await pEvent(options.body, 'open');
+			}
+
+			// Promises are executed immediately.
+			// If there were no `setImmediate` here,
+			// `promise.json()` would have no effect
+			// as the request would be sent already.
+			await setImmediateAsync();
+
 			for (const hook of options.hooks.beforeRequest) {
 				// eslint-disable-next-line no-await-in-loop
 				await hook(options);
diff --git a/test/post.ts b/test/post.ts
index 3a423f5fd..baa689c1b 100644
--- a/test/post.ts
+++ b/test/post.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 import {promisify} from 'util';
 import stream = require('stream');
+import fs = require('fs');
 import test from 'ava';
+import delay = require('delay');
 import {Handler} from 'express';
+import getStream = require('get-stream');
 import toReadableStream = require('to-readable-stream');
 import got from '../source';
 import withServer from './helpers/with-server';
@@ -271,3 +274,29 @@ test('DELETE method sends plain objects as JSON', withServer, async (t, server,
 	});
 	t.deepEqual(body, {such: 'wow'});
 });
+
+test('catches body errors before calling pipeline() - promise', withServer, async (t, server, got) => {
+	server.post('/', defaultEndpoint);
+
+	await t.throwsAsync(got.post({
+		body: fs.createReadStream('./file-that-does-not-exist.txt')
+	}), {
+		message: /ENOENT: no such file or directory/
+	});
+
+	// Wait for unhandled errors
+	await delay(100);
+});
+
+test('catches body errors before calling pipeline() - stream', withServer, async (t, server, got) => {
+	server.post('/', defaultEndpoint);
+
+	await t.throwsAsync(getStream(got.stream.post({
+		body: fs.createReadStream('./file-that-does-not-exist.txt')
+	})), {
+		message: /ENOENT: no such file or directory/
+	});
+
+	// Wait for unhandled errors
+	await delay(100);
+});