diff --git a/federationapi/routing/join.go b/federationapi/routing/join.go
index 4a88dfb88..74d065e59 100644
--- a/federationapi/routing/join.go
+++ b/federationapi/routing/join.go
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ func SendJoin(
 	// the request. By this point we've already asserted that the sender
 	// and the state key are equal so we don't need to check both.
 	var serverName gomatrixserverlib.ServerName
-	if _, serverName, err := gomatrixserverlib.SplitID('@', event.Sender()); err != nil {
+	if _, serverName, err = gomatrixserverlib.SplitID('@', event.Sender()); err != nil {
 		return util.JSONResponse{
 			Code: http.StatusForbidden,
 			JSON: jsonerror.Forbidden("The sender of the join is invalid"),
diff --git a/federationapi/routing/leave.go b/federationapi/routing/leave.go
index 6ad0d28c2..a67e4e28b 100644
--- a/federationapi/routing/leave.go
+++ b/federationapi/routing/leave.go
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ func MakeLeave(
 }
 
 // SendLeave implements the /send_leave API
+// nolint:gocyclo
 func SendLeave(
 	httpReq *http.Request,
 	request *gomatrixserverlib.FederationRequest,
@@ -184,7 +185,7 @@ func SendLeave(
 	// the request. By this point we've already asserted that the sender
 	// and the state key are equal so we don't need to check both.
 	var serverName gomatrixserverlib.ServerName
-	if _, serverName, err := gomatrixserverlib.SplitID('@', event.Sender()); err != nil {
+	if _, serverName, err = gomatrixserverlib.SplitID('@', event.Sender()); err != nil {
 		return util.JSONResponse{
 			Code: http.StatusForbidden,
 			JSON: jsonerror.Forbidden("The sender of the join is invalid"),