diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index bf7945293..7a65ff2d5 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -2443,18 +2443,16 @@ under the License.
 
     <target name="release-prep0" depends="-init-svn" description="check to make sure the release tag doesn't exist yet">
         <!-- verify that svn username/password are valid ... -->
-        <fail message="Unable to connect to SVN repo. Verify apache-id username and password.">
+        <fail message="Unable to connect to SVN repo. Verify apache-id username and password. If these are correct, change the release-prep0 target to check over http, which would indicate a problem with your https setup.">
             <condition>
-                <!-- FIXME: svnExists doesn't work with https here. -->
-                <not><svnExists refid="svn.settings" target="http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/poi/"/></not>
+                <not><svnExists refid="svn.settings" target="https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/poi/"/></not>
             </condition>
         </fail>
 
         <!-- verify that the release tag that we're about to create in release-prep1 does not already exist (no overwriting tags!) -->
         <fail message="Cannot create release tag. https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/poi/tags/${RELEASE_TAG} already exists. Verify the requested release version (${version.id}).">
             <condition>
-                <!-- FIXME: svnExists doesn't work with https here. -->
-                <svnExists refid="svn.settings" target="http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/poi/tags/${RELEASE_TAG}/"/>
+                <svnExists refid="svn.settings" target="https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/poi/tags/${RELEASE_TAG}/"/>
             </condition>
         </fail>
     </target>