diff --git a/pkg/controller/instance/instance_controller.go b/pkg/controller/instance/instance_controller.go
index 4d0085fbe..7f8e00d37 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/instance/instance_controller.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/instance/instance_controller.go
@@ -161,7 +161,6 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Reconcile(request ctrl.Request) (ctrl.Result, error) {
 
 	log.Printf("InstanceController: Received Reconcile request for instance \"%+v\"", request.Name)
 	instance, err := r.getInstance(request)
-	oldInstance := instance.DeepCopy()
 	if err != nil {
 		if apierrors.IsNotFound(err) { // not retrying if instance not found, probably someone manually removed it?
 			log.Printf("Instance %s was deleted, nothing to reconcile.", request.NamespacedName)
@@ -169,6 +168,7 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Reconcile(request ctrl.Request) (ctrl.Result, error) {
 		}
 		return reconcile.Result{}, err
 	}
+	oldInstance := instance.DeepCopy()
 
 	ov, err := r.getOperatorVersion(instance)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -341,7 +341,6 @@ func (r *Reconciler) handleError(err error, instance *kudov1beta1.Instance, oldI
 }
 
 // getInstance retrieves the instance by namespaced name
-// returns nil, nil when instance is not found (not found is not considered an error)
 func (r *Reconciler) getInstance(request ctrl.Request) (instance *kudov1beta1.Instance, err error) {
 	instance = &kudov1beta1.Instance{}
 	err = r.Get(context.TODO(), request.NamespacedName, instance)
@@ -356,7 +355,6 @@ func (r *Reconciler) getInstance(request ctrl.Request) (instance *kudov1beta1.In
 }
 
 // getOperatorVersion retrieves operatorversion belonging to the given instance
-// not found is treated here as any other error
 func (r *Reconciler) getOperatorVersion(instance *kudov1beta1.Instance) (ov *kudov1beta1.OperatorVersion, err error) {
 	ov = &kudov1beta1.OperatorVersion{}
 	err = r.Get(context.TODO(),