diff --git a/roomserver/internal/query/query.go b/roomserver/internal/query/query.go
index 1c3a770f2..05cd686f4 100644
--- a/roomserver/internal/query/query.go
+++ b/roomserver/internal/query/query.go
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ func (r *Queryer) QueryMissingAuthPrevEvents(
 
 	for _, prevEventID := range request.PrevEventIDs {
 		state, err := r.DB.StateAtEventIDs(ctx, []string{prevEventID})
-		if err != nil || len(state) == 0 || ((state[0].EventTypeNID != types.MRoomCreateNID || state[0].EventStateKeyNID != types.EmptyStateKeyNID) && state[0].BeforeStateSnapshotNID == 0) {
+		if err != nil || len(state) == 0 || (!state[0].IsCreate() && state[0].BeforeStateSnapshotNID == 0) {
 			response.MissingPrevEventIDs = append(response.MissingPrevEventIDs, prevEventID)
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/roomserver/types/types.go b/roomserver/types/types.go
index 5e1eebe98..5d52ccfcd 100644
--- a/roomserver/types/types.go
+++ b/roomserver/types/types.go
@@ -83,6 +83,10 @@ type StateKeyTuple struct {
 	EventStateKeyNID EventStateKeyNID
 }
 
+func (a StateKeyTuple) IsCreate() bool {
+	return a.EventTypeNID == MRoomCreateNID && a.EventStateKeyNID == EmptyStateKeyNID
+}
+
 // LessThan returns true if this state key is less than the other state key.
 // The ordering is arbitrary and is used to implement binary search and to efficiently deduplicate entries.
 func (a StateKeyTuple) LessThan(b StateKeyTuple) bool {