I tried code below to decode them but still &lt; gets stored instead of <

It looks like UpdateModel does not use passed fromValues collection to update.

How to store < to model if &lt; is passed as value ?

Or how to disable only post data encoding ? setting autoencode=false disables incoming data encoding also.

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Save(string id, FormCollection formValues)
{
  foreach (var val in formValues.AllKeys )
     formValues[val] = Server.HtmlDecode(formValues[val]);
  var entity = db.Stringss.Where((s) => s.Est == id).Single();
  UpdateModel(entity);
}