diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 97c16aa48..f232552e0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Fix latent AssertionError when evaluating `is_hudi` or `is_iceberg` properties on relations without metadata
 - Validate relation identifier length at creation time and raise a clear error when it exceeds Databricks' 255-character limit ([#1309](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/issues/1309))
 - Fix spurious `MicrobatchConcurrency` behavior-change warning firing on every run regardless of whether the project contained microbatch models ([#1406](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/issues/1406))
 - Fix DBR capability cache being permanently poisoned by a transient version-query failure ([#1398](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/issues/1398))
diff --git a/dbt/adapters/databricks/relation.py b/dbt/adapters/databricks/relation.py
index 1b18e3ece..cf4e9a280 100644
--- a/dbt/adapters/databricks/relation.py
+++ b/dbt/adapters/databricks/relation.py
@@ -146,13 +146,11 @@ def is_dlt(self) -> bool:
 
     @property
     def is_hudi(self) -> bool:
-        assert self.metadata is not None
-        return self.metadata.get(KEY_TABLE_PROVIDER) == "hudi"
+        return self.metadata is not None and self.metadata.get(KEY_TABLE_PROVIDER) == "hudi"
 
     @property
     def is_iceberg(self) -> bool:
-        assert self.metadata is not None
-        return self.metadata.get(KEY_TABLE_PROVIDER) == "iceberg"
+        return self.metadata is not None and self.metadata.get(KEY_TABLE_PROVIDER) == "iceberg"
 
     @property
     def owner(self) -> Optional[str]:
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_relation.py b/tests/unit/test_relation.py
index 9a2ef2af8..e2ada0aaf 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_relation.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_relation.py
@@ -264,6 +264,22 @@ def test_is_iceberg_false_for_delta(self):
         )
         assert relation.is_iceberg is False
 
+    def test_is_iceberg_no_metadata(self):
+        relation = DatabricksRelation.create(
+            identifier="no_metadata_iceberg_table",
+            type="table",
+            metadata=None,
+        )
+        assert relation.is_iceberg is False
+
+    def test_is_hudi_no_metadata(self):
+        relation = DatabricksRelation.create(
+            identifier="no_metadata_hudi_table",
+            type="table",
+            metadata=None,
+        )
+        assert relation.is_hudi is False
+
     @pytest.mark.parametrize(
         "type_, is_delta, is_iceberg, expected_can_be_replaced",
         [