diff --git a/rest_framework/fields.py b/rest_framework/fields.py
index bea773001..5cadb522a 100644
--- a/rest_framework/fields.py
+++ b/rest_framework/fields.py
@@ -1171,7 +1171,7 @@ class ListField(Field):
         # We override the default field access in order to support
         # lists in HTML forms.
         if html.is_html_input(dictionary):
-            return html.parse_html_list(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name)
+            return html.parse_html_list(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name) or empty
         return dictionary.get(self.field_name, empty)
 
     def to_internal_value(self, data):
@@ -1208,7 +1208,7 @@ class DictField(Field):
         # We override the default field access in order to support
         # dictionaries in HTML forms.
         if html.is_html_input(dictionary):
-            return html.parse_html_dict(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name)
+            return html.parse_html_dict(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name) or empty
         return dictionary.get(self.field_name, empty)
 
     def to_internal_value(self, data):
diff --git a/rest_framework/serializers.py b/rest_framework/serializers.py
index 2eef6eeb5..fb0885dff 100644
--- a/rest_framework/serializers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/serializers.py
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ class Serializer(BaseSerializer):
         # We override the default field access in order to support
         # nested HTML forms.
         if html.is_html_input(dictionary):
-            return html.parse_html_dict(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name)
+            return html.parse_html_dict(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name) or empty
         return dictionary.get(self.field_name, empty)
 
     def run_validation(self, data=empty):
@@ -502,7 +502,7 @@ class ListSerializer(BaseSerializer):
         # We override the default field access in order to support
         # lists in HTML forms.
         if html.is_html_input(dictionary):
-            return html.parse_html_list(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name)
+            return html.parse_html_list(dictionary, prefix=self.field_name) or empty
         return dictionary.get(self.field_name, empty)
 
     def run_validation(self, data=empty):