diff --git a/src/diffusers/loaders.py b/src/diffusers/loaders.py
index d0a9b3e2d382..35204ea72cc2 100644
--- a/src/diffusers/loaders.py
+++ b/src/diffusers/loaders.py
@@ -2433,8 +2433,8 @@ def from_single_file(cls, pretrained_model_link_or_path, **kwargs):
             from .models.controlnet import ControlNetModel
             from .pipelines.controlnet.multicontrolnet import MultiControlNetModel
 
-            # Model type will be inferred from the checkpoint.
-            if not isinstance(controlnet, (ControlNetModel, MultiControlNetModel)):
+            #  list/tuple or a single instance of ControlNetModel or MultiControlNetModel
+            if not (isinstance(controlnet, (ControlNetModel, MultiControlNetModel)) or isinstance(controlnet, (list, tuple)) and isinstance(controlnet[0], ControlNetModel)):
                 raise ValueError("ControlNet needs to be passed if loading from ControlNet pipeline.")
         elif "StableDiffusion" in pipeline_name:
             # Model type will be inferred from the checkpoint.