Today’s Conveyancer recently sat down with Sarah Bent, Partner and Head of Residential Conveyancing at Hegarty’s. Sarah has been with the firm for 14 years, after starting as an admin assistant. Hegarty has also just celebrated 50 years of operation.
Sarah shares insights into her multifaceted role both at home and in the office. Having spent her entire professional career with Hegarty, Sarah reflects on the firm’s 50-year milestone and outlines ambitious plans for expansion in 2024. Drawing from her journey within the firm, she emphasises the value of working one’s way up and staying approachable.
She also delves into the challenges faced by homebuyers and sellers, highlighting the importance of patience and communication in the often complex process of conveyancing. Finally, she sheds light on the evolving landscape of conveyancing as a profession, discussing the impact of regulatory changes and the recent shifts in the property market.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
At home I am a wife and mum of a very sassy toddler and golden retriever.
In the office I am a solicitor, Partner and Head of a busy Residential Conveyancing department which is located across all 4 of our offices. I run my own case load of residential conveyancing files, with my assistant, as well as being the point of contact for all of our conveyancers for queries questions and anything conveyancing related. I am also the SRO looking after our CQS accreditation, as well as being part of our Anti Money Laundering Team for the firm. I help with business development for the department and getting to know our local agents so we can all achieve the best for our clients.
I have been with Hegarty for my whole professional career starting in admin and working through my Training Contract and ultimately in to our Property department. 12 years of this was spent in our head office in Peterborough and the last year a bit closer to home in our Oakham office.
For several years I was working mainly on conveyancing in the north London/Watford area and as a result have seen my fair share or weird and wonderful conveyancing, the problems its causes and how to resolve these issues. This highlighted to me the importance of knowing the area you do work in, it doesn’t have to be local to you but having the experience and knowing what you are likely to come up against and how to fix it is worth its weight.
2. Now that Hegarty has celebrated 50 years of business, what are the plans for the future?
Expansion is always a hot topic at strategy days for the firm. Hegarty are keen to grow and our plan is to do just that. With a rough 2023 for conveyancing, we have had a strong start to 2024 and expect it to continue. With this in mind we hope to grow the department and firm as a whole, and plans to open another new office later in the year are underway.
3. What are some of your key takeaways from your journey within Hegarty?
I have always been an advocate of working your way up. As an admin assistant when I first started I had no idea what working in a firm of solicitors was going to be like. I got to know everyone in the firm, including the Partners. Everyone has always been so approachable and this helped me feel so welcomed and confident. I try to never ask anyone I work with to do anything I wasn’t able to do myself. How do you expect to be able to train staff or help out if you don’t know how to do it yourself?
4. What are your thoughts on some of the challenges homebuyers/sellers may be facing and how to overcome them?
The first thing we always get asked by clients is how long is it going to take? We would love to give clients a straightforward answer for this, but the truth is until we have all of the information, we just don’t know. Patience is key! Communication is always big factor as well. Keeping clients up to date with what is going on, even if its not what they want to hear, is a massive part of keeping clients happy and feeling like they know what going on in a situation that they have very little control of.
The biggest challenges clients face is not being in control of what is happening, they are putting a lot of faith in their conveyancer. We are handling a massive part of most people’s adult life, buying a house is not only a big financial commitment but has a massive emotional strain too, you have to believe your conveyancer knows what they are doing and that they have your best interests in mind. That’s why it’s so important to find the right fit, they have to be right for you and you have to have confidence in them. Clients have to be able to ask questions of their conveyancer to make sure they understand the risks they are taking and if it is something they are comfortable with.
At Hegarty we pride ourselves on the personal service we provide our clients. Clients deal with the same people from quote stage to completion. We work in small teams to make sure we know our clients and what is going on, and they know who they are talking to.
5. Can you share your thoughts on current challenges and opportunities conveyancers are facing?
Conveyancing as a profession has changed a lot over the last few years, there is a lot more emphasis on compliance with additional regulatory procedures being introduced. But following the pandemic a lot of experienced conveyancers have left the profession. The volume of work that went though most firms since 2019 has had a massive effect on how matters were handled and how much extra work firms were taking on, add in increasing insurance premiums and a lot of firms have stopped doing conveyancing altogether.
With a poor property market in 2023 and increasing interest rates, many firms that were thriving, made redundancies. 2024 has already seen an uplift in the market and we are now starting to see conveyancing jobs come back up.
