diff --git a/src/pie_modules/taskmodules/pointer_network/annotation_encoder_decoder.py b/src/pie_modules/taskmodules/pointer_network/annotation_encoder_decoder.py
index 5d48629bd..639df0da1 100644
--- a/src/pie_modules/taskmodules/pointer_network/annotation_encoder_decoder.py
+++ b/src/pie_modules/taskmodules/pointer_network/annotation_encoder_decoder.py
@@ -381,9 +381,11 @@ def parse(self, encoding: List[int]) -> Tuple[List[BinaryRelation], Dict[str, in
         if len(encoding):
             for i in encoding:
                 current_encoding.append(i)
-                # An encoding is complete when it ends with a relation_id
-                # or when it contains a none_id and has a length of 7
-                if i in relation_ids or (i == none_id and len(current_encoding) == 7):
+                # An encoding is complete when it ends with a relation_id or when it has
+                # a length of 7, encodings with length above 7 are never valid. Note that
+                # all incomplete encodings (the 3rd return value of this method) need to
+                # be processable by build_decoding_constraints!
+                if i in relation_ids or len(current_encoding) == 7:
                     # try to decode the current relation encoding
                     try:
                         valid_encoding = self.decode(encoding=current_encoding)