diff --git a/test/unit/testreporter.js b/test/unit/testreporter.js
index ab517d6f7..41502d6d3 100644
--- a/test/unit/testreporter.js
+++ b/test/unit/testreporter.js
@@ -51,7 +51,21 @@ var TestReporter = function (browser) {
     sendInfo("Started tests for " + browser + ".");
   };
 
-  this.suiteStarted = function (result) {};
+  this.suiteStarted = function (result) {
+    // Normally suite starts don't have to be reported because the individual
+    // specs inside them are reported, but it can happen that the suite cannot
+    // start, for instance due to an uncaught exception in `beforeEach`. This
+    // is problematic because the specs inside the suite will never be found
+    // and run, so if we don't report the suite start failure here it would be
+    // ignored silently, leading to passing tests even though some did not run.
+    if (result.failedExpectations.length > 0) {
+      let failedMessages = "";
+      for (const item of result.failedExpectations) {
+        failedMessages += `${item.message} `;
+      }
+      sendResult("TEST-UNEXPECTED-FAIL", result.description, failedMessages);
+    }
+  };
 
   this.specStarted = function (result) {};