diff --git a/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/datatype/DefaultData.cs b/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/datatype/DefaultData.cs
index 6d42ab748f..66b22fa9cd 100644
--- a/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/datatype/DefaultData.cs
+++ b/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/datatype/DefaultData.cs
@@ -136,10 +136,22 @@ namespace umbraco.cms.businesslogic.datatype
                     {
                         //CHANGE:by Allan Laustsen to fix copy nodes
                         //if (value == null)
-                        if (value == null || (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value.ToString()) && (this._dataType.DBType == DBTypes.Integer || this._dataType.DBType == DBTypes.Date)))
-                            SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery("update cmsPropertyData set " + _dataType.DataFieldName + " = NULL where id = " + m_PropertyId);
+                        if (value == null ||
+                            (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value.ToString()) &&
+                             (this._dataType.DBType == DBTypes.Integer || this._dataType.DBType == DBTypes.Date)))
+                            SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery("update cmsPropertyData set " + _dataType.DataFieldName +
+                                                      " = NULL where id = " + m_PropertyId);
                         else
-                            SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery("update cmsPropertyData set " + _dataType.DataFieldName + " = @value where id = " + m_PropertyId, SqlHelper.CreateParameter("@value", value));
+                        {
+                            // we need to be sure that the value doesn't contain malformatted xml
+                            if (_dataType.DBType == DBTypes.Ntext || _dataType.DBType == DBTypes.Nvarchar)
+                            {
+                                value = cms.helpers.xhtml.RemoveTroublesomeCharacters(value.ToString());
+                            }
+                            SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(
+                                "update cmsPropertyData set " + _dataType.DataFieldName + " = @value where id = " +
+                                m_PropertyId, SqlHelper.CreateParameter("@value", value));
+                        }
                     }
                     catch (Exception e)
                     {
diff --git a/src/umbraco.cms/helpers/xhtml.cs b/src/umbraco.cms/helpers/xhtml.cs
index 3700b7f130..8e7d1dd3ad 100644
--- a/src/umbraco.cms/helpers/xhtml.cs
+++ b/src/umbraco.cms/helpers/xhtml.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System;
 using System.Collections;
+using System.Text;
 using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
 using System.IO;
 
@@ -146,6 +147,28 @@ namespace umbraco.cms.helpers
 				newTag += " " + attributeSet.Groups["attributeName"].Value.ToString().ToLower() + "=\"" + attributeSet.Groups["attributeValue"].Value.ToString() + "\"";
 
 			return newTag;
-		}	
+		}
+
+        public static string RemoveTroublesomeCharacters(string inString)
+        {
+            if (inString == null) return null;
+
+            StringBuilder newString = new StringBuilder();
+            char ch;
+
+            for (int i = 0; i < inString.Length; i++)
+            {
+
+                ch = inString[i];
+                // remove any characters outside the valid UTF-8 range as well as all control characters
+                // except tabs and new lines
+                if ((ch < 0x00FD && ch > 0x001F) || ch == '\t' || ch == '\n' || ch == '\r')
+                {
+                    newString.Append(ch);
+                }
+            }
+            return newString.ToString();
+
+        }
 	}
 }