Search for “contract review” in Victoria and you’ll find three quite different offers wearing similar clothes: conveyancers advertising free reviews, fixed-fee and full-service paid reviews, and a newer category of instant AI-assisted checks. This site sells one of the third kind, so read what follows knowing that. Each of the three is a legitimate product with a real use case, and each has limits its marketing tends to soften.
Free conveyancer reviews: a trial, not a service
The free review is conveyancing’s version of the free gym class. It costs nothing, it’s professionally delivered, and it exists to convert you into a paying client. A qualified person skims the contract and Section 32, calls you with headline observations, and quotes the firm’s conveyancing service, usually $800–$2,500.
If you’d already planned on hiring a conveyancer, this is a sensible way to audition one. Just know what you’re getting. Depth is discretionary and usually shallow, written output is minimal, turnaround runs 24–48 hours behind paying work, and the conversation is, by design, a sales conversation. The firm will only dig as deep as it needs to in order to win your conveyancing business.
What you get from a paid review
A fixed-fee standalone review ($150–$300) or a full solicitor review ($500–$2,000 and up) buys professional judgment applied to your specific purchase. At the solicitor tier it also buys formal advice you can rely on, negotiation of special conditions on your behalf, and professional indemnity behind the opinion. For complex purchases (off-the-plan, trusts, Section 173 Agreements, commercial elements) there is no substitute at any lower tier, and nothing cheaper should be treated as one.
The downsides are mostly practical. Cost multiplies quickly across several candidate properties. Turnaround is measured in days, which auction timelines don’t always allow. And quality varies by practitioner; a rushed skim billed as a review exists at every price point.
AI-assisted checks: fast triage, real limits
Instant checks, priced $19–$50, read the full document set in minutes and produce a structured report: missing required documents, red-flag clauses and encumbrances, checkbox declarations such as bushfire-prone status and owner-builder works, completeness against the Sale of Land Act’s required contents, and a list of questions worth raising with a professional.
The strengths are speed, price and consistency. A check runs at 11pm on a Thursday and costs the same for your fifth property as your first. It also reads page 180 of an OC certificate as carefully as page 1, which no tired human does. The limits matter just as much, though. An AI check is not legal advice, and no serious provider claims otherwise. It doesn’t know your circumstances, it won’t negotiate with anyone, and nobody carries professional responsibility for what it says. Document quality bounds it too: a bad scan limits any automated reading, and a well-built tool says “couldn’t verify this” rather than guessing.
The comparison, plainly
| Free review | Paid professional | AI-assisted check | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $0 (+ expected conveyancing engagement) | $150–$2,000+ | $19–$50 |
| Turnaround | 24–48 hrs | 1–5 business days | Minutes |
| Legal advice | Limited | Yes (solicitor tier) | No |
| Negotiates for you | No | Yes (solicitor tier) | No |
| Scales across many properties | Awkwardly | Expensively | Yes |
| Sales pressure | Built in | None | None |
Which one should you use?
You don’t have to pick just one. Most buyers end up using two of these in sequence.
- Shortlisting several properties: run cheap instant checks across the lot, and save the professional fee for the one you end up bidding on.
- Simple established-home purchase, decent timeline: a fixed-fee standalone review. Run an instant check first if you want to arrive with your questions ready.
- Auction this week: run the instant check straight away, then book whatever professional review you can still get before auction day. Once the hammer falls there’s no cooling-off, so anything after that is too late.
- Anything complex: solicitor. Use the cheaper tiers as preparation, never as replacement.
- Already have a conveyancer you trust: their free or bundled review plus your own instant check covers a lot of ground. One brings judgment, the other brings systematic completeness on a 200-page document set.
To repeat the declared interest: this site sells the $19 instant check described above. The recommendations stand anyway, including the part where complex purchases go to a solicitor and unconditional contracts get professional review before signing. As long as the contract gets a proper look before you’re locked in, how you mix the tiers is up to you.