caveat emptor

[Latin: let the buyer beware]
A common-law maxim warning a purchaser that he could not claim that his purchases were defective unless he protected himself by obtaining express guarantees from the vendor. The maxim has been modified by statute: under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (a consolidating statute), contracts for the sale of goods have implied terms requiring the goods to correspond with their description and any sample and, if they are sold in the course of a business, to be of merchantable quality and fit for any purpose made known to the seller. Each of these implied terms is a condition of the contract. These statutory conditions do not apply to sales of land, to which the maxim caveat emptor still applies as far as the condition of the property is concerned. However, a term is normally implied that the vendor must convey a good *title to the land, free from encumbrances that were not disclosed to the purchaser before the contract was made.