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54 As foreclosure resolution time frames swell, servicers and investors must maintain property preservation standards for longer periods of time. Properties at the highest risk of loss or damage are vacant properties. Vacancy presents a host of problems to servicers and in- vestors in managing their foreclosure inventory. Paramount among those concerns is vandalism. Many servicers and investors are proactively addressing vandalism in vacant, abandoned properties by employing progressive methods of securing and monitoring them. However, in the event of an incident of vandalism (or incidents), a claim may be filed by the mort- gagee if there is a policy of insurance in force. Even where a mortgagee has yet to take title, a borrowers' insurance policy still provides some protection against loss. ese insurance pro- ceeds are intended to protect the subject prop- erty as the security interest of the mortgagee. A lienholder must be aware, though, that an insurance policy secured by the borrower, and still in force while the property is vacant, may contain exclusions that can severely limit the coverage available to the mortgagee. e vacancy exclusion present in most standard-line insurance policies, particularly as the exclusion pertains to fire—or, more specifi- cally, arson—is an area of some confusion. Legal precedent differs in the interpretation of the terms "vandalism" and "arson" as they are applied under the vacancy exclusion. A servicer or investor should be aware of the limitations in coverage under a borrower's insurance policy for vacant properties that suffer losses from arson. e standard mortgage document requires a borrower to carry an insurance policy that covers the dwelling, listing the mortgagee as lienholder, as a condition of the mortgage. In the event of delinquency, many mortgage docu- ments, and most every insurance policy, provide the mortgagee the opportunity to maintain said coverage as lienholder. Many mortgage servicers elect to maintain the policy originally issued to the borrower as the named insured. However, as most mortgagees are aware, once the borrower no longer resides at the property, I N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T / P A T R I C K N A C K L E Y VANDALISM, ARSON—OR BOTH With so many legal stipulations to bear in mind, deserted dwellings are anything but an open-and-shut case.