Reply #48: Caveat emptor, right! Wrong, that was for the days of the Roman Empire [View All]

[whistle]

...and not for making loan sharking an acceptable institution.

Caveat emptor is Latin for "Let the buyer beware". Generally caveat emptor is the property law doctrine that controls the sale of real property after the date of closing.

Under the doctrine of caveat emptor, the buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for ordinary purposes. The only exception was if the seller actively concealed latent defects. The modern trend in the US, however, is one of the Implied Warranty of Fitness that applies only to the sale of new residential housing by a builder-seller and the rule of Caveat Emptor applies to all other sale situations (i.e. homeowner to buyer).(See Stambovsky v. Ackley, 572 N.Y.S.2d 672 (N.Y. App. 1991)) Many other jurisdictions have provisions similar to this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor

In the United States of America this practice of organized loan sharking and usury against citizens has never been considered acceptable until the past five to six years. In fact with the loan sharking and home grabbing activities we now have Caveat venditor which is Latin for "let the seller beware". Homebuyers in these desperate times in order to get out from under these swindle mortgages are getting screwed on the selling end also.