diff --git a/src/core/manager.c b/src/core/manager.c
index de0a719a65..3f92ac3948 100644
--- a/src/core/manager.c
+++ b/src/core/manager.c
@@ -732,7 +732,7 @@ int manager_new(UnitFileScope scope, unsigned test_run_flags, Manager **_m) {
                 goto fail;
         }
 
-        if (MANAGER_IS_SYSTEM(m)) {
+        if (MANAGER_IS_SYSTEM(m) && test_run_flags == 0) {
                 r = mkdir_label("/run/systemd/units", 0755);
                 if (r < 0 && r != -EEXIST)
                         goto fail;
@@ -740,7 +740,6 @@ int manager_new(UnitFileScope scope, unsigned test_run_flags, Manager **_m) {
 
         /* Note that we do not set up the notify fd here. We do that after deserialization,
          * since they might have gotten serialized across the reexec. */
-
         m->taint_usr = dir_is_empty("/usr") > 0;
 
         r = manager_setup_prefix(m);