diff --git a/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassfeatureiterator.cpp b/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassfeatureiterator.cpp
index f55daa2f0458..d8f7b43b82e0 100644
--- a/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassfeatureiterator.cpp
+++ b/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassfeatureiterator.cpp
@@ -743,7 +743,7 @@ QgsGrassFeatureSource::QgsGrassFeatureSource( const QgsGrassProvider *p )
   , mGrassType( p->mGrassType )
   , mQgisType( p->mQgisType )
   , mFields( p->fields() )
-  , mEncoding( p->textEncoding() )
+  , mEncoding( p->textEncoding() ) // no copying - this is a borrowed pointer from Qt
   , mEditing( p->mEditBuffer )
 {
   Q_ASSERT( mLayer );
diff --git a/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassprovider.cpp b/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassprovider.cpp
index 5a0b86b6e18d..c2c9aeb48f32 100644
--- a/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassprovider.cpp
+++ b/src/providers/grass/qgsgrassprovider.cpp
@@ -250,6 +250,10 @@ QgsGrassProvider::QgsGrassProvider( const QString &uri )
                   // << QgsVectorDataProvider::NativeType( tr( "Date" ), "date", QVariant::Date, 8, 8 );
                 );
 
+  // Assign default encoding
+  if ( !textEncoding() )
+    QgsVectorDataProvider::setEncoding( QStringLiteral( "UTF-8" ) );
+
   mValid = true;
 
   QgsDebugMsg( QString( "New GRASS layer opened, time (ms): %1" ).arg( time.elapsed() ) );