making claim on a prior owner's owner policy

No can do.

If you have a title problem and you do not have an owner title insurance policy, you cannot make a claim on the title policy of a prior owner.  You have to take action against the prior owner and the prior owner, if they choose to file a claim, may contact their title insurance company.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a consumer who we insured back in 2006.  At issue were unpaid delinquent taxes from 2005.  I asked him to send me a copy of the statement he had received showing taxes outstanding.

I always want to see the correspondence a consumer has received.  Sometimes there is a misunderstanding that can be resolved simply by reading the statement.

In this case, he had the current owner send me the statement and the new owner of the property contacted me.  I explained that all of my communications would be with our insured, even though he didn't own the property anymore.  She would have to deal directly with the prior owner, our insured.

I did some preliminary work and found that the 2005 delinquency statement we had obtained did not include 2005 school tax.  Apparently during 2005 the school district was in the process of changing collection services and though both the municipality and the local tax collector directed us in writing to the company we contacted, the 2005 school tax data was not yet in their hands.

I opened a claim in the name of our insured and the matter is under review by a claims attorney.