diff --git a/wcs/ctl/check_hobos.py b/wcs/ctl/check_hobos.py
index 91e9fa444..6d321558a 100644
--- a/wcs/ctl/check_hobos.py
+++ b/wcs/ctl/check_hobos.py
@@ -186,9 +186,17 @@ class CmdCheckHobos(Command):
             atomic_symlink(target_dir, theme_dir)
             for component in ('static', 'templates'):
                 component_dir = os.path.join(tenant_dir, component)
-                if os.path.lexists(component_dir):
-                    os.unlink(component_dir)
-                if theme_data.get('overlay'):
+                if not os.path.islink(component_dir) and os.path.isdir(component_dir):
+                    try:
+                        os.rmdir(component_dir)
+                    except OSError:
+                        continue
+                if not theme_data.get('overlay'):
+                    try:
+                        os.unlink(component_dir)
+                    except OSError:
+                        pass
+                else:
                     atomic_symlink(
                             os.path.join(self.THEMES_DIRECTORY, theme_data['overlay'], component),
                             component_dir)