diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_vm.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_vm.c
index 23952ad8951e..ef20e205a734 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_vm.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_vm.c
@@ -1947,21 +1947,13 @@ void xe_vm_close_and_put(struct xe_vm *vm)
 		vma->gpuva.flags |= XE_VMA_DESTROYED;
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * All vm operations will add shared fences to resv.
-	 * The only exception is eviction for a shared object,
-	 * but even so, the unbind when evicted would still
-	 * install a fence to resv. Hence it's safe to
-	 * destroy the pagetables immediately.
-	 */
-	xe_vm_free_scratch(vm);
-	xe_vm_pt_destroy(vm);
 	xe_vm_unlock(vm);
 
 	/*
-	 * VM is now dead, cannot re-add nodes to vm->vmas if it's NULL
-	 * Since we hold a refcount to the bo, we can remove and free
-	 * the members safely without locking.
+	 * Unlink and destroy all contested external-BO VMAs before destroying
+	 * the page tables. Otherwise, concurrent eviction holding only bo->resv
+	 * can walk the BO's VMAs and attempt to invalidate/zap page tables that
+	 * have already been freed.
 	 */
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(vma, next_vma, &contested,
 				 combined_links.destroy) {
@@ -1969,6 +1961,11 @@ void xe_vm_close_and_put(struct xe_vm *vm)
 		xe_vma_destroy_unlocked(vma);
 	}
 
+	xe_vm_lock(vm, false);
+	xe_vm_free_scratch(vm);
+	xe_vm_pt_destroy(vm);
+	xe_vm_unlock(vm);
+
 	xe_svm_fini(vm);
 
 	up_write(&vm->lock);