diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index edbd8c27dd5..9ba0b842f02 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ install:
 script:
   # fail fast
   - set -e
+  # fail if the template files contains tabs
+  - /bin/bash ./bin/utils/detect_tab_in_templates.sh
   # fail if the test files have changes
   - bin/utils/detect_test_file_changes.rb bin/utils/test_file_list.yaml
   # fail if templates/generators contain carriage return '\r'
diff --git a/bin/utils/detect_tab_in_templates.sh b/bin/utils/detect_tab_in_templates.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..e3ac60b104d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/utils/detect_tab_in_templates.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Look for \t in the template folders and report errors if found
+# as these tabs should be replaced with 4-space instead
+
+## declare an array of folders
+declare -a samples=("modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/kotlin-server"
+                    "modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/kotlin-spring"
+                    "modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/dart-dio"
+                    "modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/dart"
+                    "modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/dart2"
+                    "modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/aspnetcore"
+                    "modules/openapi-generator/src/main/resources/powershell"
+                    )
+
+## now loop through the above array
+for i in "${samples[@]}"
+do
+   # grep for \t in the folder
+   RESULT=`grep -R -P "\t" $i`
+   echo -e "$RESULT"
+   
+   if [ "$RESULT" != "" ]; then
+       echo "Template files contain tab '\\t'. Please remove it or replace it with 4-space."
+       exit 1;
+   fi
+done
+