diff --git a/manic/repository_svn.py b/manic/repository_svn.py
index 32a7118..b66c72e 100644
--- a/manic/repository_svn.py
+++ b/manic/repository_svn.py
@@ -42,9 +42,6 @@ def __init__(self, component_name, repo, ignore_ancestry=False):
         Parse repo (a <repo> XML element).
         """
         Repository.__init__(self, component_name, repo)
-        if 'github.com' in self._url:
-            msg = "SVN access to github.com is no longer supported"
-            fatal_error(msg)
         self._ignore_ancestry = ignore_ancestry
         if self._url.endswith('/'):
             # there is already a '/' separator in the URL; no need to add another
@@ -77,6 +74,9 @@ def checkout(self, base_dir_path, repo_dir_name, verbosity, recursive):  # pylin
 
         """
         repo_dir_path = os.path.join(base_dir_path, repo_dir_name)
+        if 'github.com' in self._url:
+            msg = "SVN access to github.com is no longer supported"
+            fatal_error(msg)
         if os.path.exists(repo_dir_path):
             cwd = os.getcwd()
             os.chdir(repo_dir_path)