Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Pennsylvania

Hello,

Our company recently moved our facility in January 2014. We do have an existing rental agreement with the landord of the commercial property that we vacated which expires April 2015. We do make timely rental payments as per our agreement and will continue to do so until April 2015 as per agreement. The rent payment does not include the local U&O Tax. Our company does make U&O Tax payments payable to the "City of Philadelphia" and sends the payment directly to the landlord's home each month via FedEx so we have a receipt. The landlord submits the payment directly to the city for payment. We have made a U&O tax payment for every month in 2014 total of 7 months to date.

The landlord has full knowledge of our vacating the premises and has been in the vacant building numerous times to meet with real estate agents to assess the building and also show the building to potential buyers.

My concern is that according the guidelines published by the local municipal branch responsible for collecting U&O Tax, Vacant Commercial Properties are excluded from U&O tax.

Published Statement: Commercial properties that are vacant are not taxed, but a landlord must still file a Form UO1 to indicate the vacancy. Similarly, the portion of a commercial property not in current business use is not taxed but must be reported. Use Line 2 of the Form UO1 for this purpose.

With knowledge of the vacant building, acceptance of check from our company to the landlord's personal address (as requested) and the forwarding of the payment directly to City tax office has the landlord acted in Bad Faith ?

Since the landlord has never furnished a payment book or invoice and continued to accept and forward our payments for U&O Tax, does this constitute a Breach of Fiduciary Responsibility ?

(contacting the local tax office to request a refund would result in a "Credit" applied to the landlord's tax account and not refund the payments made since vacating the rental facility)

Finally, if the above constitutes a breach of fiduciary responsibility, would this qualify as a breach in our rental agreement that would terminate our rental agreement which extends into 2015 ?

I am not an attorney nor have I ever had the need for an attorney, if my argument is valid I will make arrangements to move forward to terminate our current rental agreement.

Best Regards,

JP

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