diff --git a/lib/ansible/inventory/data.py b/lib/ansible/inventory/data.py
index 04308a0ed91..dc730ff6065 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/inventory/data.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/inventory/data.py
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ class InventoryData(object):
             if self.groups['ungrouped'] in mygroups:
                 # clear ungrouped of any incorrectly stored by parser
                 if set(mygroups).difference(set([self.groups['all'], self.groups['ungrouped']])):
-                    host.remove_group(self.groups['ungrouped'])
+                    self.groups['ungrouped'].remove_host(host)
 
             elif not host.implicit:
                 # add ungrouped hosts to ungrouped, except implicit
diff --git a/test/units/plugins/inventory/test_inventory.py b/test/units/plugins/inventory/test_inventory.py
index ab6bdac84fd..394ae53df76 100644
--- a/test/units/plugins/inventory/test_inventory.py
+++ b/test/units/plugins/inventory/test_inventory.py
@@ -198,6 +198,6 @@ class TestInventoryPlugins(unittest.TestCase):
         all_hosts = set(host.name for host in inventory.groups['all'].get_hosts())
         self.assertEqual(set(['host1', 'host2', 'host3', 'host4', 'host5']), all_hosts)
         ungrouped_hosts = set(host.name for host in inventory.groups['ungrouped'].get_hosts())
-        self.assertEqual(set(['host1', 'host2', 'host3']), ungrouped_hosts)
+        self.assertEqual(set(['host1', 'host2']), ungrouped_hosts)
         servers_hosts = set(host.name for host in inventory.groups['servers'].get_hosts())
         self.assertEqual(set(['host3', 'host4', 'host5']), servers_hosts)