who screwed up here?

[Joanne Tsai]

Hi BPers:

I have a situation here, and this is not the first time it happened... 

We purchased a property in Aug 2020, closed on Aug 31st to be exact. We prepaid the property taxes for the remainder of the year (Sep-Dec) when closing. Recently I logged onto our bank account, and discovered the $ going into escrow is a lot higher than before. After speaking to the escrow company, it turned out, the escrow paid the state the property taxes for entire 2020 because they've received the bill. 

It seems to me that 1) the previous owner didn't pay her taxes. 2) the title company didn't find that out and also didn't pay the 4 months of prepaid property taxes on our behalf. 

who is at fault here? is this something covered by title insurance? any advice will be super appreciated. 

Property is in VA.

Thanks!