I've had this same error, without your whole code it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how to fix it but it is caused by not having a __set function.
The way that I have gotten around it in the past is I have done things like this:
$user = createUser();
$role = $user->role;
$role->rolename = 'Test';
now if you do this:
echo $user->role->rolename;
you should see 'Test'