[mikester]

Something similar happened to me when we bought our house.

We purchased it from a couple who had only owned it for about 8 months. They did not pay their property taxes. The escrow company did not 'notice' this at all and I did not either. The reason that it wasn't noticed is that it wasn't properly noted in the tax records at the County. When the County got their records straight they tried to bill me for the back taxes. My bank sent me a letter stating that they needed to raise my mortgage to cover the owed taxes (in the tax escrow account).

We went back and forth with the escrow company and finally I contacted the county and talked directly to them. After a while they realized that they were billing the wrong person for the taxes and I Was not liable for them.

Took a couple of months to straighten out but we did.