diff --git a/etc/maxscale.service.in b/etc/maxscale.service.in
index 1d0597c76..e036ae235 100644
--- a/etc/maxscale.service.in
+++ b/etc/maxscale.service.in
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ After=network.target
 Type=forking
 Restart=on-failure
 PIDFile=@MAXSCALE_VARDIR@/run/maxscale/maxscale.pid
+ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/mkdir @MAXSCALE_VARDIR@/run/maxscale
+ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/chown -R maxscale:maxscale @MAXSCALE_VARDIR@/run/maxscale
 ExecStart=@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@/@MAXSCALE_BINDIR@/maxscale --user=maxscale
 
 [Install]