I moved to North Carolina and signed a year long lease with an apartment complex. About two weeks after signing the lease I learned that the apartment complex did not own the unit I was living, the bank owned the unit. The apartments had me sign a lease for a different apartment in the same complex. Should I be obligated to pay rent for the first month at the unit that was owned by the bank? What does it mean that I signed a lease on an apartment that they didn't even own?

Unless the apartment complex has the legal right to act for the bank as a leasing agent, they can not rent or lease a building they do not own and that lease could not be valid or legal. Unless they can prove they had the right to lease it, merely ask for any and all money back that was given on that lease.