diff --git a/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/ingestion/transformer/add_dataset_properties.py b/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/ingestion/transformer/add_dataset_properties.py
index 76d89c68b8..601a8eb612 100644
--- a/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/ingestion/transformer/add_dataset_properties.py
+++ b/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/ingestion/transformer/add_dataset_properties.py
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ class AddDatasetProperties(DatasetPropertiesTransformer):
         in_dataset_properties_aspect: DatasetPropertiesClass = cast(
             DatasetPropertiesClass, aspect
         )
-
-        assert in_dataset_properties_aspect
+        if not in_dataset_properties_aspect:
+            in_dataset_properties_aspect = DatasetPropertiesClass()
 
         out_dataset_properties_aspect: DatasetPropertiesClass = copy.deepcopy(
             in_dataset_properties_aspect