diff --git a/src/nvim/option.c b/src/nvim/option.c
index 0c87a422dc..2871a4b7de 100644
--- a/src/nvim/option.c
+++ b/src/nvim/option.c
@@ -4742,13 +4742,6 @@ bool get_tty_option(char *name, char **value)
     return true;
   }
 
-  if (strequal(name, "tenc") || strequal(name, "termencoding")) {
-    if (value) {
-      *value = xstrdup("utf-8");
-    }
-    return true;
-  }
-
   if (strequal(name, "ttytype")) {
     if (value) {
       *value = p_ttytype ? xstrdup(p_ttytype) : xstrdup("nvim");
diff --git a/src/nvim/options.lua b/src/nvim/options.lua
index a5a14a1a25..7d080b8d56 100644
--- a/src/nvim/options.lua
+++ b/src/nvim/options.lua
@@ -2488,6 +2488,12 @@ return {
       varname='p_tbidi',
       defaults={if_true={vi=false}}
     },
+    {
+      full_name='termencoding', abbreviation='tenc',
+      type='string', scope={'global'},
+      vi_def=true,
+      defaults={if_true={vi=""}}
+    },
     {
       full_name='termguicolors', abbreviation='tgc',
       type='bool', scope={'global'},
diff --git a/src/nvim/testdir/test_python3.vim b/src/nvim/testdir/test_python3.vim
index 108f78f976..31e0142bf4 100644
--- a/src/nvim/testdir/test_python3.vim
+++ b/src/nvim/testdir/test_python3.vim
@@ -175,9 +175,7 @@ endfunc
 
 func Test_unicode()
   " this crashed Vim once
-  if &tenc != ''
-    throw "Skipped: 'termencoding' is not empty"
-  endif
+  throw "Skipped: nvim does not support changing 'encoding'"
 
   set encoding=utf32
   py3 print('hello')