diff --git a/dehydrated b/dehydrated
index d998901..8fe232b 100755
--- a/dehydrated
+++ b/dehydrated
@@ -1662,7 +1662,7 @@ command_sign_domains() {
     fi
 
     # Check domain names of existing certificate
-    if [[ -e "${cert}" ]]; then
+    if [[ -e "${cert}" && "${force_renew}" = "no" ]]; then
       printf " + Checking domain name(s) of existing cert..."
 
       certnames="$("${OPENSSL}" x509 -in "${cert}" -text -noout | grep DNS: | _sed 's/DNS://g' | tr -d ' ' | tr ',' '\n' | sort -u | tr '\n' ' ' | _sed 's/ $//')"