> What does Caveat Emptor mean?

The expression Caveat Emptor, or "Buyer Beware" was coined to warn people buying land to be wary of what they are buying - to make sure they know all about it before they become committed.

Once an Agreement for Sale and Purchase is signed, you have very little opportunity to pull out of the deal.

If its conditional on finance and you can’t arrange finance, you can cancel.

If the vendor can’t deliver you a clean title, your lawyer may be able to requisition to have it cleaned up and if it can’t be, you may be able to cancel. The chances of being able to achieve this are very small.

If an agreement is conditional on getting a LIM Report and the report identifies a problem and the vendor can’t fix it, you may be able to cancel. If the vendor simply refuses to fix it, you are faced with the prospect of cancelling or proceeding knowing you may suffer loss in the future from the identified risk.

But if you find out after you have signed that the boundaries are not where you thought they were, you can't cancel. That is your risk when you sign.

If the Council doesn't fully disclose something on their files, you can't cancel - obviously, because you won’t know about it...

Lets face it, every time you buy a home you are taking many risks that you may have to live with. In many cases these risks can’t be identified.

Have a look at the Claims Examples to see the sorts of risks we are talking about.

Caveat Emptor has real meaning when buying a home.

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