diff --git a/lib/libalpm/remove.c b/lib/libalpm/remove.c
index de39724a..958374a5 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/remove.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/remove.c
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ static int can_remove_file(alpm_handle_t *handle, const alpm_file_t *file)
 	/* If we fail write permissions due to a read-only filesystem, abort.
 	 * Assume all other possible failures are covered somewhere else */
 	if(_alpm_access(handle, NULL, filepath, W_OK) == -1) {
-		if(errno != EACCES && errno != ETXTBSY && access(filepath, F_OK) == 0) {
+		if(errno != EACCES && errno != ETXTBSY && _alpm_access(handle, NULL, filepath, F_OK) == 0) {
 			/* only return failure if the file ACTUALLY exists and we can't write to
 			 * it - ignore "chmod -w" simple permission failures */
 			_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_ERROR, _("cannot remove file '%s': %s\n"),