diff --git a/docs/man/clazy.pod b/docs/man/clazy.pod
--- a/docs/man/clazy.pod
+++ b/docs/man/clazy.pod
@@ -202,6 +202,9 @@
 even if the -Werror compiler option is specified.  This is useful if you want to use -Werror
 only for the regular gcc/clang warnings but not for clazy warnings.
 
+B<CLAZY_CHECKS_AS_ERRORS> - comma-separated list of checks that will be promoted
+to compiler errors. Note that this does not enable the checks specified here.
+
 =head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
 
 Copyright (C) 2015-2017 Klaralvdalens Datakonsult AB, a KDAB Group company, <info@kdab.com>
diff --git a/src/ClazyContext.h b/src/ClazyContext.h
--- a/src/ClazyContext.h
+++ b/src/ClazyContext.h
@@ -156,6 +156,11 @@
         return sm.isInFileID(loc, sm.getMainFileID());
     }
 
+    bool treatAsError(const std::string &checkName) const
+    {
+        return clazy::contains(m_checksPromotedToErrors, checkName);
+    }
+
     /**
      * We only enable it if a check needs it, for performance reasons
      */
@@ -174,6 +179,7 @@
     PreProcessorVisitor *preprocessorVisitor = nullptr;
     SuppressionManager suppressionManager;
     const bool m_noWerror;
+    std::vector<std::string> m_checksPromotedToErrors;
     bool m_visitsAllTypeDefs = false;
     clang::ParentMap *parentMap = nullptr;
     const ClazyOptions options;
diff --git a/src/ClazyContext.cpp b/src/ClazyContext.cpp
--- a/src/ClazyContext.cpp
+++ b/src/ClazyContext.cpp
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 */
 
 #include "AccessSpecifierManager.h"
+#include "checkmanager.h"
 #include "ClazyContext.h"
 #include "FixItExporter.h"
 #include "PreProcessorVisitor.h"
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@
     , astContext(ci.getASTContext())
     , sm(ci.getSourceManager())
     , m_noWerror(getenv("CLAZY_NO_WERROR") != nullptr) // Allows user to make clazy ignore -Werror
+    , m_checksPromotedToErrors(CheckManager::instance()->checksAsErrors())
     , options(opts)
     , extraOptions(clazy::splitString(getenv("CLAZY_EXTRA_OPTIONS"), ','))
     , m_translationUnitPaths(translationUnitPaths)
diff --git a/src/checkbase.cpp b/src/checkbase.cpp
--- a/src/checkbase.cpp
+++ b/src/checkbase.cpp
@@ -251,8 +251,9 @@
 {
     FullSourceLoc full(loc, sm());
     auto &engine = m_context->ci.getDiagnostics();
-    auto severity = (engine.getWarningsAsErrors() && !m_context->userDisabledWError()) ? DiagnosticIDs::Error
-                                                                                       : DiagnosticIDs::Warning;
+    auto severity = (m_context->treatAsError(m_name) || (engine.getWarningsAsErrors() && !m_context->userDisabledWError()))
+            ? DiagnosticIDs::Error
+            : DiagnosticIDs::Warning;
     unsigned id = engine.getDiagnosticIDs()->getCustomDiagID(severity, error.c_str());
     DiagnosticBuilder B = engine.Report(full, id);
     for (const FixItHint& fixit : fixits) {
diff --git a/src/checkmanager.h b/src/checkmanager.h
--- a/src/checkmanager.h
+++ b/src/checkmanager.h
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@
     static std::mutex &lock() { return m_lock; }
     RegisteredCheck::List availableChecks(CheckLevel maxLevel) const;
     RegisteredCheck::List requestedChecksThroughEnv(std::vector<std::string> &userDisabledChecks) const;
+    std::vector<std::string> checksAsErrors() const;
 
     RegisteredCheck::List::const_iterator checkForName(const RegisteredCheck::List &checks, const std::string &name) const;
     RegisteredCheck::List checksForCommaSeparatedString(const std::string &str) const;
diff --git a/src/checkmanager.cpp b/src/checkmanager.cpp
--- a/src/checkmanager.cpp
+++ b/src/checkmanager.cpp
@@ -317,3 +317,28 @@
 
     return result;
 }
+
+vector<string> CheckManager::checksAsErrors() const
+{
+    auto checksAsErrosEnv = getenv("CLAZY_CHECKS_AS_ERRORS");
+
+    if (checksAsErrosEnv) {
+        auto checkNames = clazy::splitString(checksAsErrosEnv, ',');
+        vector<string> result;
+
+        // Check whether all supplied check names are valid
+        for (const string &name : checkNames) {
+            auto it = clazy::find_if(m_registeredChecks, [&name](const RegisteredCheck &check)
+            {
+                return check.name == name;
+            });
+            if (it == m_registeredChecks.end())
+                llvm::errs() << "Invalid check: " << name << '\n';
+            else
+                result.emplace_back(name);
+        }
+        return result;
+    }
+    else
+        return {};
+}