diff --git a/Mf2/Parser.php b/Mf2/Parser.php
index f8b29b7..2192b8c 100644
--- a/Mf2/Parser.php
+++ b/Mf2/Parser.php
@@ -1413,13 +1413,13 @@ public function parse_recursive(DOMElement $context = null, $depth = 0) {
 							// Note: handling microformat nesting under multiple conflicting prefixes is not currently specified by the mf2 parsing spec.
 							$prefixSpecificResult = $result;
 							if (in_array('p-', $prefixes)) {
-								$prefixSpecificResult['value'] = (empty($prefixSpecificResult['properties']['name'][0])) ? $this->parseP($node) : $prefixSpecificResult['properties']['name'][0];
+								$prefixSpecificResult['value'] = (!is_array($prefixSpecificResult['properties']) || empty($prefixSpecificResult['properties']['name'][0])) ? $this->parseP($node) : $prefixSpecificResult['properties']['name'][0];
 							} elseif (in_array('e-', $prefixes)) {
 								$eParsedResult = $this->parseE($node);
 								$prefixSpecificResult['html'] = $eParsedResult['html'];
 								$prefixSpecificResult['value'] = $eParsedResult['value'];
 							} elseif (in_array('u-', $prefixes)) {
-								$prefixSpecificResult['value'] = (empty($result['properties']['url'])) ? $this->parseU($node) : reset($result['properties']['url']);
+								$prefixSpecificResult['value'] = (!is_array($result['properties']) || empty($result['properties']['url'])) ? $this->parseU($node) : reset($result['properties']['url']);
 							} elseif (in_array('dt-', $prefixes)) {
 								$parsed_property = $this->parseDT($node);
 								$prefixSpecificResult['value'] = ($parsed_property) ? $parsed_property : '';
diff --git a/tests/Mf2/ParserTest.php b/tests/Mf2/ParserTest.php
index 0f480cf..f30e2bf 100644
--- a/tests/Mf2/ParserTest.php
+++ b/tests/Mf2/ParserTest.php
@@ -825,7 +825,26 @@ public function testNotMutatingPassedInDOM() {
 		$this->assertEquals($refDoc, $inputDoc, 'Parsing mutated the DOMDocument.');
 	}
 
-	/**
+	public function testNoImpliedURLForEmptyProperties() {
+		// In the 0.4.5 release, this caused an error
+		// https://github.com/microformats/php-mf2/issues/196
+
+		$input = <<<EOD
+<div class="h-entry">
+  <li class="h-cite u-comment">
+    <div class="vcard"></div>
+  </li>
+</div>
+EOD;
+
+		$output = Mf2\parse($input);
+		$this->assertInternalType('array', $output['items'][0]['properties']['comment'][0]['properties']);
+		$this->assertInternalType('array', $output['items'][0]['properties']['comment'][0]['children'][0]['properties']);
+		$this->assertEmpty($output['items'][0]['properties']['comment'][0]['properties']);
+		$this->assertEmpty($output['items'][0]['properties']['comment'][0]['children'][0]['properties']);
+  }
+
+  /**
 	 * Make sure day of year passed to normalizeOrdinalDate() is valid
 	 * @see https://github.com/indieweb/php-mf2/issues/167
 	 */