diff --git a/changelog.d/9753.misc b/changelog.d/9753.misc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..31184fe0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/9753.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Check that a `ConfigError` is raised, rather than simply `Exception`, when appropriate in homeserver config file generation tests.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/config/test_load.py b/tests/config/test_load.py
index 734a9983e..c10942567 100644
--- a/tests/config/test_load.py
+++ b/tests/config/test_load.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ from io import StringIO
 
 import yaml
 
+from synapse.config import ConfigError
 from synapse.config.homeserver import HomeServerConfig
 
 from tests import unittest
@@ -35,9 +36,9 @@ class ConfigLoadingTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_load_fails_if_server_name_missing(self):
         self.generate_config_and_remove_lines_containing("server_name")
-        with self.assertRaises(Exception):
+        with self.assertRaises(ConfigError):
             HomeServerConfig.load_config("", ["-c", self.file])
-        with self.assertRaises(Exception):
+        with self.assertRaises(ConfigError):
             HomeServerConfig.load_or_generate_config("", ["-c", self.file])
 
     def test_generates_and_loads_macaroon_secret_key(self):