jQuery validation plugin error: TypeError: validator is undefined

Question

Here is html code for the form:

Answer 1

This issue was occurring for me when calling validator.destroy() - the error was occurring within the staticRules method of the plugin. The cause turned out to be the associated form element (element.form) was detached from the DOM. I resolved it by checking the element was in the DOM before calling destroy, using the following method:

document.contains(element)

Hopefully this helps someone.