TreeView Virtualization Mode is Recycling (the default one). In the ItemTemplate there is a RichTextBox with HtmlFormatProvider. Changing ItemsSource of the TreeView runtime produces null reference exception in TreeViewPanel.CleanupRange(). The Exception comes from the RecyclingItemContainerGenerator.Recycle method (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc452208(v=vs.110).aspx). As a workaround if applicable, user can use the HierarchicalVirtualization mode: <telerik:RadTreeView telerik:TreeViewPanel.TreeVirtualizationMode="Hierarchical"