diff --git a/src/client.rs b/src/client.rs
index 0e5faf03..81cc22f5 100644
--- a/src/client.rs
+++ b/src/client.rs
@@ -407,17 +407,26 @@ impl<T: Read+Write> Client<T> {
 		let mut found_tag_line = false;
 		let start_str = format!("{}{} ", TAG_PREFIX, self.tag);
 		let mut lines: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+		let mut error = None;
 
 		while !found_tag_line {
 			let raw_data = try!(self.readline());
-			let line = String::from_utf8(raw_data).unwrap();
-			lines.push(line.clone());
-			if (&*line).starts_with(&*start_str) {
-				found_tag_line = true;
+			// if there is an encoding error, still continue until the tag
+			match String::from_utf8(raw_data) {
+				Err(e) => error = Some(e),
+				Ok(line) => {
+					lines.push(line.clone());
+					if (&*line).starts_with(&*start_str) {
+						found_tag_line = true;
+					}		
+				}
 			}
 		}
 
-		Ok(lines)
+		match error {
+			Some(e) => Err(e.into()),
+			None => Ok(lines)
+		}
 	}
 
 	fn read_greeting(&mut self) -> Result<()> {
diff --git a/src/error.rs b/src/error.rs
index 28ee761b..b6b8fa4d 100644
--- a/src/error.rs
+++ b/src/error.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ use std::result;
 use std::fmt;
 use std::error::Error as StdError;
 use std::net::TcpStream;
+use std::string::FromUtf8Error;
 
 use openssl::ssl::HandshakeError as SslError;
 
@@ -35,6 +36,12 @@ impl From<SslError<TcpStream>> for Error {
     }
 }
 
+impl From<FromUtf8Error> for Error {
+    fn from(err: FromUtf8Error) -> Error {
+        Error::Parse(ParseError::FromUtf8(err))
+    }
+}
+
 impl fmt::Display for Error {
     fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
         match *self {
@@ -67,6 +74,8 @@ impl StdError for Error {
 
 #[derive(Debug)]
 pub enum ParseError {
+	// Error in the decoding of data.
+	FromUtf8(FromUtf8Error),
     // Indicates an error parsing the status response. Such as OK, NO, and BAD.
     StatusResponse(Vec<String>),
     // Error parsing the cabability response.
@@ -86,6 +95,7 @@ impl fmt::Display for ParseError {
 impl StdError for ParseError {
     fn description(&self) -> &str {
         match *self {
+        	ParseError::FromUtf8(_) => "Unable to decode the response as UTF-8.",
             ParseError::StatusResponse(_) => "Unable to parse status response",
             ParseError::Capability(_) => "Unable to parse capability response",
             ParseError::Authentication(_) => "Unable to parse authentication response"