diff --git a/src/monty/json.py b/src/monty/json.py
index f9899097..282cfad3 100644
--- a/src/monty/json.py
+++ b/src/monty/json.py
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
 from typing import Any
 from uuid import UUID, uuid4
 
+from ruamel.yaml import YAML
+
 try:
     import numpy as np
 except ImportError:
@@ -41,17 +43,11 @@
 except ImportError:
     bson = None
 
-try:
-    from ruamel.yaml import YAML
-except ImportError:
-    YAML = None
-
 try:
     import orjson
 except ImportError:
     orjson = None
 
-
 try:
     import torch
 except ImportError:
diff --git a/src/monty/serialization.py b/src/monty/serialization.py
index a17b9913..6732a674 100644
--- a/src/monty/serialization.py
+++ b/src/monty/serialization.py
@@ -9,10 +9,7 @@
 import os
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
-try:
-    from ruamel.yaml import YAML
-except ImportError:
-    YAML = None  # type: ignore[arg-type]
+from ruamel.yaml import YAML
 
 from monty.io import zopen
 from monty.json import MontyDecoder, MontyEncoder