diff --git a/octavia/api/v2/controllers/load_balancer.py b/octavia/api/v2/controllers/load_balancer.py
index 34ed71f521..93013f0c7a 100644
--- a/octavia/api/v2/controllers/load_balancer.py
+++ b/octavia/api/v2/controllers/load_balancer.py
@@ -106,6 +106,16 @@ class LoadBalancersController(base.BaseController):
             raise exceptions.LBPendingStateError(
                 state=prov_status, id=id)
 
+    def _test_and_set_failover_prov_status(self, session, id):
+        lb_repo = self.repositories.load_balancer
+        if not lb_repo.set_status_for_failover(session, id,
+                                               constants.PENDING_UPDATE):
+            prov_status = lb_repo.get(session, id=id).provisioning_status
+            LOG.info("Invalid state %(state)s of loadbalancer resource %(id)s",
+                     {"state": prov_status, "id": id})
+            raise exceptions.LBPendingStateError(
+                state=prov_status, id=id)
+
     @staticmethod
     def _validate_network_and_fill_or_validate_subnet(load_balancer):
         network = validate.network_exists_optionally_contains_subnet(
@@ -719,7 +729,7 @@ class FailoverController(LoadBalancersController):
         driver = driver_factory.get_driver(db_lb.provider)
 
         with db_api.get_lock_session() as lock_session:
-            self._test_lb_status(lock_session, self.lb_id)
+            self._test_and_set_failover_prov_status(lock_session, self.lb_id)
             LOG.info("Sending failover request for load balancer %s to the "
                      "provider %s", self.lb_id, driver.name)
             driver_utils.call_provider(
diff --git a/octavia/tests/functional/api/v2/test_load_balancer.py b/octavia/tests/functional/api/v2/test_load_balancer.py
index 23559d5e34..fad027881c 100644
--- a/octavia/tests/functional/api/v2/test_load_balancer.py
+++ b/octavia/tests/functional/api/v2/test_load_balancer.py
@@ -1955,7 +1955,7 @@ class TestLoadBalancer(base.BaseAPITest):
                                 status=constants.ERROR)
         self.app.put(self._get_full_path(
             self.LB_PATH.format(lb_id=lb_dict.get('id')) + "/failover"),
-            status=409)
+            status=202)
 
     def test_failover_not_authorized(self):
         project_id = uuidutils.generate_uuid()
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/fix-lb-error-failover-2c17afaa20c0c97f.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/fix-lb-error-failover-2c17afaa20c0c97f.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0fe4c856e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/fix-lb-error-failover-2c17afaa20c0c97f.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Fix load balancers that could not be failed over when in ERROR provisioning
+    status.