diff --git a/.avalanche-golangci.yml b/.avalanche-golangci.yml
index d029774226..3e7e195ef8 100644
--- a/.avalanche-golangci.yml
+++ b/.avalanche-golangci.yml
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ linters:
     - ineffassign
     - misspell
     - nakedret
-    # - nilerr
+    - nilerr
     - noctx
     - nolintlint
     - perfsprint
diff --git a/plugin/evm/customtypes/rlp_fuzzer_test.go b/plugin/evm/customtypes/rlp_fuzzer_test.go
index 99604f1246..d6227f6d82 100644
--- a/plugin/evm/customtypes/rlp_fuzzer_test.go
+++ b/plugin/evm/customtypes/rlp_fuzzer_test.go
@@ -44,8 +44,7 @@ import (
 
 func decodeEncode(input []byte, val interface{}) error {
 	if err := rlp.DecodeBytes(input, val); err != nil {
-		// not valid rlp, nothing to do
-		return nil
+		return nil //nolint:nilerr // not valid rlp, nothing to do
 	}
 	// If it _were_ valid rlp, we can encode it again
 	output, err := rlp.EncodeToBytes(val)
diff --git a/sync/statesync/trie_sync_tasks.go b/sync/statesync/trie_sync_tasks.go
index 6791c99a6b..40f1075f3a 100644
--- a/sync/statesync/trie_sync_tasks.go
+++ b/sync/statesync/trie_sync_tasks.go
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ func (s *storageTrieTask) OnStart() (bool, error) {
 	}
 	storageTrie, err := trie.New(trie.StorageTrieID(s.sync.root, s.root, firstAccount), s.sync.trieDB)
 	if err != nil {
-		return false, nil
+		return false, nil //nolint:nilerr // the storage trie does not exist, so it should be rerequested
 	}
 
 	// If the storage trie is already on disk, we only need to populate the storage snapshot for [accountHash]