diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 72bc8c6cf0..b962aee228 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ Development
 - Fix notifications when organization seats limit is reached [#16359](https://github.com/CartoDB/cartodb/pull/16359)
 - Fix privacy dropdown when user is editing a map [#16367](https://github.com/CartoDB/cartodb/pull/16367)
 - Add a new rake to update a user username [#16370](https://github.com/CartoDB/cartodb/pull/16370)
+- Add a check before destroying user tables in order to avoid deleting dependent maps [#16381](https://github.com/CartoDB/cartodb/pull/16381)
 - Fix duplicated attributions in datasets [#16384](https://github.com/CartoDB/cartodb/pull/16384)
 
 4.45.0 (2021-04-14)
diff --git a/app/models/carto/user_table.rb b/app/models/carto/user_table.rb
index 9e385d2f2f..4014ebc608 100644
--- a/app/models/carto/user_table.rb
+++ b/app/models/carto/user_table.rb
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ end
 
 module Carto
   class UserTable < ActiveRecord::Base
+
+    attr_accessor :skip_destroy_dependent_visualizations
+
     PRIVACY_PRIVATE = 0
     PRIVACY_PUBLIC = 1
     PRIVACY_LINK = 2
@@ -68,7 +71,7 @@ module Carto
     before_destroy :ensure_not_viewer
     before_destroy :cache_dependent_visualizations, unless: :destroyed?
     before_destroy :backup_visualizations, unless: :destroyed?
-    after_destroy :destroy_dependent_visualizations
+    after_destroy :destroy_dependent_visualizations, unless: :skip_destroy_dependent_visualizations
     after_destroy :service_after_destroy
 
     def geometry_types