Landlord did not pay taxes - Property for sheriff sale

[MRW]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

My landlord did not pay his county or city taxes for the building I am living in. The building went up for sheriff sale and was taken over by the city on 3/31/07. I was unaware of this and signed a lease on 4/29/07. It has been listed as property of the "City of Pittsburgh" ever since 3/31/07. Notices were posted on our doors that we would have to move out by 10/31/07 if the balance was not settled. The tenants were not paying any rent(except for me) because he no longer owned the building. However, I never recieved the letter because he took them off the doors. I paid rent for June, July, Aug, & Sept (months that he did not own the building) but then finally spoke with the city and they said I should NOT be paying him rent because he does not own the building. He finally appears to have settled the dispute on 10/12/07 and is beginning to make payments on back taxes. Many tenants that stopped paying rent moved out and found other places and do not plan to pay him back rent. Here is my question: DO I HAVE A RIGHT TO GET BACK THE RENT THAT I PAID WHEN HE DID NOT OWN THE BUILDING?

(If it makes any difference: He did not pay the water bill either and we received notices that it would be shut off on 10/10/07, but he settled that by paying it on 10/9/07)

 

[moburkes]

Well, no. He wrongfully collected the rent, but the rent would have been due to the whomever owned the property. Just as the rent of the people who chose not to pay, should have been collected by the owner. So, the rent issue is between him and the owner, not you and him.

 

[MRW]

Well the "owner" for that 7 month period was the CITY. The city told me on multiple occasions not to pay the landlord. If the city owned the property for those months but did not collect rent, would the rent issue for those months then be between the city and the landlord?
If the rent issue is then between the owner(the city) and the landlord, should the landlord be coming after the tenants who did not pay those months or after the city who should have been collecting?
Also, i did not pay for October because the property was not owned by my "landlord" at the time. Now that he redeemed the property on Oct 12, Do I owe him a full months rent or a pro-rated rent or no rent at all?

 

[moburkes]

Well the "owner" for that 7 month period was the CITY. The city told me on multiple occasions not to pay the landlord. If the city owned the property for those months but did not collect rent, would the rent issue for those months then be between the city and the landlord?
If the rent issue is then between the owner(the city) and the landlord, should the landlord be coming after the tenants who did not pay those months or after the city who should have been collecting?
Also, i did not pay for October because the property was not owned by my "landlord" at the time. Now that he redeemed the property on Oct 12, Do I owe him a full months rent or a pro-rated rent or no rent at all?

No, the rent issue would be between the owner (city) and the tenant (you).