diff --git a/addon/serializers/json-api-serializer.js b/addon/serializers/json-api-serializer.js
index b398ebeefaa..8b53ea568c5 100644
--- a/addon/serializers/json-api-serializer.js
+++ b/addon/serializers/json-api-serializer.js
@@ -136,6 +136,10 @@ const JSONAPISerializer = JSONSerializer.extend({
     @private
   */
   _normalizeResourceHelper: function(resourceHash) {
+    Ember.assert(this.warnMessageForUndefinedType(), !Ember.isNone(resourceHash.type), {
+      id: 'ds.serializer.type-is-undefined'
+    });
+
     let modelName = this.modelNameFromPayloadKey(resourceHash.type);
 
     if (!this.store._hasModelFor(modelName)) {
@@ -465,6 +469,9 @@ const JSONAPISerializer = JSONSerializer.extend({
 
 Ember.runInDebug(function() {
   JSONAPISerializer.reopen({
+    warnMessageForUndefinedType: function() {
+      return 'Encountered a resource object with an undefined type (resolved resource using ' + this.constructor.toString() + ')';
+    },
     warnMessageNoModelForType: function(modelName, originalType) {
       return 'Encountered a resource object with type "' + originalType + '", but no model was found for model name "' + modelName + '" (resolved model name using ' + this.constructor.toString() + '.modelNameFromPayloadKey("' + originalType + '"))';
     }
diff --git a/tests/integration/serializers/json-api-serializer-test.js b/tests/integration/serializers/json-api-serializer-test.js
index 7536f865bce..6d8af4f3954 100644
--- a/tests/integration/serializers/json-api-serializer-test.js
+++ b/tests/integration/serializers/json-api-serializer-test.js
@@ -134,6 +134,23 @@ test('Warns when normalizing an unknown type', function(assert) {
   }, /Encountered a resource object with type "UnknownType", but no model was found for model name "unknown-type"/);
 });
 
+test('Warns when normalizing with type missing', function(assert) {
+  var documentHash = {
+    data: {
+      id: '1',
+      attributes: {
+        foo: 'bar'
+      }
+    }
+  };
+
+  assert.throws(function() {
+    run(function() {
+      env.store.serializerFor('user').normalizeResponse(env.store, User, documentHash, '1', 'findRecord');
+    });
+  }, /Encountered a resource object with an undefined type/);
+});
+
 test('Serializer should respect the attrs hash when extracting attributes and relationships', function(assert) {
   env.registry.register("serializer:user", DS.JSONAPISerializer.extend({
     attrs: {