Gardeners Hatch End Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Hatch End collects, uses, stores and protects your personal data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. It applies to all Gardeners Hatch End customers within our service area, including prospective, current and past customers who contact us or use our gardening services.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Hatch End is a local gardening and grounds maintenance service provider. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Hatch End is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy covers all personal data we process in relation to our services, whether collected online, by phone, in person or through any other communication channel.

Types of personal data we collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, and details we need to contact you, for example an online profile identifier if you contact us through a digital platform.

Service and property information, such as details of your garden or outdoor space, access instructions, photographs of areas to be worked on that you share with us or that we take to document our work, and notes on your service preferences.

Contract and transaction information, such as records of quotations, agreed work, invoices, payments, and related correspondence about the services we provide.

Communication records, such as messages, feedback, and complaints you send to us, along with notes of any conversations with you regarding your services.

Technical and usage data, where applicable, such as basic analytics information about how you interact with our website or online content, including approximate location, device type and pages visited. This data is typically collected in aggregate form and does not directly identify you.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quotation, make a booking, ask a question, or otherwise communicate with us. This may be done through our website, by message, or in person. We also collect personal data when we carry out site visits, provide gardening services at your property, or maintain ongoing customer relationships.

In some cases, we may receive personal data indirectly, for example where an existing customer provides your details so that we can give you a quotation or perform services at a property that you manage or co-own.

Lawful bases for processing your data

We only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so under the UK GDPR. Depending on the context, our lawful bases include:

Contract. We process your data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, such as providing quotations, and to perform our contract with you, such as arranging and delivering gardening services and handling billing and payments.

Legitimate interests. We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This includes managing our customer relationships, improving our services, maintaining business records, and protecting our legal rights.

Legal obligations. We may process your data to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting and record keeping requirements, and to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

Consent. In some cases, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain forms of direct marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you are free to withdraw it at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening services, including assessing your requirements, preparing quotations, scheduling and carrying out visits, and following up on completed work.

To administer our relationship with you, including managing your customer account, processing payments, issuing invoices and receipts, and handling queries or complaints.

To communicate with you about your bookings, appointments, service updates and changes to our terms or policies.

To maintain business records, perform internal administration, and keep our accounts and financial records accurate.

To improve our services and customer experience, including analysing feedback and usage patterns, and planning our resources and service offerings.

To send marketing communications, where permitted, about our services that may be of interest to you. You can opt out of marketing at any time.

To protect our legal rights and interests, including for the prevention and detection of fraud and in connection with potential or actual legal disputes.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These may include:

IT and hosting providers who support our website, customer records and communication tools.

Accounting or bookkeeping providers who assist us with our financial records and invoicing.

Professional advisers, such as legal or compliance advisers, where necessary to protect our rights or meet our legal obligations.

These processors are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes we specify. We require them to implement appropriate security measures and to protect your data in line with data protection law.

We may also share personal data when required by law, in response to valid requests from public authorities, or in connection with legal claims or the sale or restructuring of our business, to the extent permitted by law.

International transfers

If any of our processors or service providers are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data, such as standard contractual clauses or other mechanisms approved by data protection authorities.

Data retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and to meet our legal, accounting and reporting obligations.

Customer and contract records are usually kept for up to seven years after our last interaction with you, to comply with tax and accounting requirements and to maintain business records. Communication records such as routine enquiries may be kept for a shorter period, typically up to two years, unless they form part of the customer record.

Where we rely on consent for marketing communications, we keep your contact details for marketing purposes until you withdraw your consent or object to receiving such communications, at which point we will remove you from our marketing lists while retaining limited records to respect your preferences.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those who need it for their role, using secure systems to store records, and ensuring that our processors are contractually required to protect your data. While we strive to protect your personal data, no system can be completely secure, and you should take care when sharing personal information with us.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions:

Right of access. You can request confirmation of whether we hold personal data about you and obtain a copy of that data, along with information about how we use it.

Right to rectification. You can ask us to correct or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to erasure. In some circumstances, you can request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction of processing. You can request that we restrict our use of your personal data in certain situations, such as while we verify the accuracy of the data or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to object. You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis. You always have the right to object to direct marketing.

Right to data portability. Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you can request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, or transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before consent was withdrawn.

Exercising your rights and complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights in relation to Gardeners Hatch End, or if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us using the contact methods you normally use to reach us as a customer. We will respond to your request as required by data protection law, usually within one month.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. We would encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concerns.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal data. Any updated version will apply to all Gardeners Hatch End customers in our service area from the date it is issued. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your personal data.