diff --git a/sklearn/tree/tree.py b/sklearn/tree/tree.py
index d6ccc69583f082833e2c1be43fe26add941fb1b0..147c5b4bb8accb84de005269e29d1b269eff58ac 100644
--- a/sklearn/tree/tree.py
+++ b/sklearn/tree/tree.py
@@ -369,10 +369,6 @@ class BaseDecisionTree(six.with_metaclass(ABCMeta, BaseEstimator)):
 
     def _validate_X_predict(self, X, check_input):
         """Validate X whenever one tries to predict, apply, predict_proba"""
-        if self.tree_ is None:
-            raise NotFittedError("Estimator not fitted, "
-                                 "call `fit` before exploiting the model.")
-
         if check_input:
             X = check_array(X, dtype=DTYPE, accept_sparse="csr")
             if issparse(X) and (X.indices.dtype != np.intc or