How Much Does an Auction Legal Pack Review Cost?
A solicitor review of an auction legal pack in the UK typically costs between £300 and £700 plus VAT for a fixed-fee written report, with leasehold lots sitting towards the upper end. That range blends full solicitor reviews with automated summaries and freelance checks, so the figure only means something once you know who is reading the pack and what they put their name to.
What the Market Charges
Published prices cluster in a narrow band, and the differences are mostly explained by turnaround, tenure and whether the firm quotes a fixed fee or bills by the hour. Research by Property Solvers Auctions across ten conveyancing firms put the average review at around £413 plus VAT for a freehold property, with leasehold reviews running to £500–£700 plus VAT. Published prices give a sense of the spread:
| Model | Published Price | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed-fee report, freehold | from £399 inc VAT to £550 + VAT | 2 working days upwards |
| Fixed-fee report, leasehold | £500–£700 + VAT, or a supplement of around £175 + VAT | 2–5 working days |
| Hourly-rate review | around £195 + VAT per hour | depends on pack size |
| Expedited 24-hour review | typically £150–£300 above the standard fee; some services from £770 | 24 hours |
| Automated or summary check | from around £50 to £275 + VAT | minutes to 2 working days |
Those averages blend service levels that are not equivalent. A full solicitor review that someone signs off sits in the same dataset as an automated summary returned in minutes, pulling the mean below what solicitor-led work costs. A headline number also tells you little until you know how it is billed. At £195 plus VAT an hour, an hourly review reaches £595 plus VAT at just over three hours and keeps climbing on a long pack, with the total known only afterwards. Tenure moves it again: one firm publishes a fixed fee from £525 plus VAT with a further £175 plus VAT supplement where the property is a flat, which is £700 plus VAT for the kind of leasehold lot that fills much of the auction catalogue.
Why the Same Pack Produces Different Quotes
Legal packs are not a standard size. A registered freehold with a clean title and current searches is a very different document set from a leasehold flat with a management pack, service charge accounts and a licence to alter. Firms quoting a fixed fee price for the range they expect to see, which is why tenure supplements are so common; firms quoting hourly simply pass the difference through.
Beyond tenure, a quote moves on the number of documents, whether there are tenancies to read, whether the title is unregistered, whether searches are present or need commissioning, and whether the seller has issued an addendum after you have read the pack. None of these are unusual — they are simply why one advertised price cannot cover every lot.
What the Cheaper and Faster Options Actually Change
At the lower end of the market sit summary checks and automated tools, priced from roughly £50 to £275 plus VAT and returned quickly. These have a real use in screening a shortlist of lots you have not yet committed to. What they do not include is a regulated solicitor reading the pack in full and putting their name to the conclusions. That is a difference in kind rather than degree, because it changes who carries professional responsibility if something in the pack is missed, and no price comparison is meaningful across that line.
At the other end, expedited services carry a premium of a few hundred pounds for a 24-hour turnaround. That is a timing question rather than a quality one. Packs are frequently released only days before the auction, so the choice is often between paying the premium and going into the room without a report — and against the deposit alone, the premium is usually straightforward to absorb.
Pricing the Review Against the Bid
The fee is best read as a proportion of what is at risk on the day, not as a line item to minimise. Take an illustrative example: a leasehold flat guided at £180,000, with an £18,000 deposit payable on the fall of the hammer. A review at £595 plus VAT is around 0.3% of the lot value and 3% of the deposit.
Set against that, a review is looking for the points that change the number you are willing to bid: an unexpectedly short lease term, service charge arrears attaching to the lot, a buyer’s premium set out in the special conditions, a missing or dated search, a covenant that constrains the intended use. Each is a matter to price in rather than a reason to walk away, but you can only price what you have read — and at auction the contract forms when the hammer falls.
How Bidq Handles This
Bidq works to fixed fees with fixed turnarounds: £595 plus VAT for a standard report within 48 hours, £895 plus VAT where 24 hours is needed, and £1,495 plus VAT for a complex transaction review, which typically applies to lots above £2.5m and adds a senior reviewing solicitor, no document-count limit and a bid decision call. Every report is read in full by an SRA-regulated solicitor and signed off before issue — the same professional standing, and the same regulator, as any solicitor-led review. What differs is the shape of the fee. It is fixed before you instruct rather than discovered afterwards; it covers title, special conditions, searches and lease and tenancy review within the standard price rather than as tenure supplements; and it does not move if the pack turns out to run to several hundred pages. Full details of each tier are set out on the auction legal pack review pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an auction legal pack itself cost? The pack is normally free. Auctioneers publish legal packs on the lot page for buyers to download, sometimes behind a short registration step, because it is in the seller’s interest for bidders to have read it. A charge, where one applies, is usually a small fee for a posted hard copy.
How long does a legal pack review take? Most solicitors quote two to five working days for a standard written report, measured from receiving the full pack rather than from instruction. Expedited services return a report within 24 hours and typically carry a premium of roughly £150 to £300. If the pack is released close to the auction date, confirm the turnaround before you instruct, not after.
How much is a solicitor for one hour? Hourly rates vary widely by firm and region; one firm advertising legal pack checks publishes £195 plus VAT per hour. On an hourly basis the total depends on the size of the pack, which is why most auction buyers prefer a fixed fee: it is knowable before you commit, and a long pack does not change it.