Gardeners Hanwell Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Hanwell collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers in our service area. It also describes your rights under UK data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Hanwell customers and potential customers in our operating area, including individuals who contact us to request quotations, make bookings, or ask for information about our gardening services. It applies whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

Data Controller

For the purposes of applicable data protection laws, Gardeners Hanwell is the data controller in relation to the personal data we collect about you. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal information.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant to providing and improving our gardening services. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details: name, postal address, billing address, property access instructions where necessary for the service, and other basic contact information you choose to provide.

Communication details: information you provide when you contact us, such as the content of emails, messages, or notes from telephone conversations, including enquiries, feedback or complaints.

Service and contract information: records of services requested or provided, appointment dates and times, service notes, quotations, pricing, contracts, invoices, and payment status.

Payment information: limited payment details necessary to process transactions, such as payment confirmation data. We do not store full card numbers or security codes where payments are processed via a secure third party.

Technical information: where you visit our online pages, we may collect technical data such as your IP address, browser type, and device information, to maintain security and improve our website performance.

Any other information you voluntarily provide: for example, specific instructions about your garden, access arrangements, or preferences regarding how we contact you.

How We Collect Your Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact Gardeners Hanwell to request a quote, book a service, or make an enquiry. This can be through online forms, written correspondence, or telephone conversations.

We may also generate personal data as part of providing our services, such as creating service records or noting your preferences. In certain cases, we may receive your details via recommendations or referrals, in which case we will inform you within a reasonable period that we hold your data, as required by law.

Lawful Bases for Processing

We process your personal data only when we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the context, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contractual necessity: to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform our contract with you, such as arranging appointments, providing gardening services, and managing payments.

Legal obligations: to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including maintaining accounting records, handling tax-related documentation, and responding to requests from public authorities where we are legally required to do so.

Legitimate interests: to pursue our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. These interests include managing our customer relationships, improving our services, ensuring site and data security, and preventing fraud or misuse of our services.

Consent: in limited cases where we rely on your consent, for example, for certain types of optional marketing communication. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening services you have requested.

To prepare quotations, service plans and schedules.

To communicate with you regarding bookings, changes to appointments, service updates, and responses to your enquiries or complaints.

To issue invoices, process payments, and maintain financial records.

To manage customer relationships, including keeping records of your service history and preferences.

To maintain and improve our services, including quality control and staff training.

To protect the security of our systems, data and premises.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations and cooperate with competent authorities where required.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share your information with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors are engaged under written contracts that require them to protect your personal data and process it only in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.

Examples of data processors we may use include:

Payment and invoicing processors, to securely process your payments and manage billing.

IT and cloud service providers, to host and maintain our systems, backups and communication tools.

Professional service providers such as accountants, where necessary for our business operations and legal compliance.

We may also share personal data with independent controllers such as banks or public authorities where required by law or where you ask us to do so.

International Transfers

Where any of our service providers are located outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place before personal data is transferred. These safeguards may include the use of standard contractual clauses or reliance on adequacy regulations, in accordance with data protection law.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to satisfy legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

Customer records related to service provision and contracts are generally kept for the duration of the customer relationship and for a period afterwards that allows us to handle queries, disputes or legal claims, typically up to six years from the end of the relationship, in line with limitation periods and record-keeping obligations.

Financial and invoicing information is kept for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Information collected for enquiries or quotation requests where no contract is formed may be retained for a shorter period that allows us to respond and follow up, after which it is deleted or anonymised.

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

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include restricting access to personal data to personnel who need it for their role, using secure systems and backups, and implementing safeguards to protect against unauthorised access.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, you have the right to:

Access your personal data and obtain information about how we process it.

Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

Request erasure of your personal data where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to keep it.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data in specific circumstances.

Object to processing carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests, in which case we will stop processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds or the processing is for legal claims.

Object to direct marketing at any time, where applicable.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to another organisation in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, where technically feasible and applicable.

Where we rely on consent, withdraw that consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed.

Children’s Data

Our services are directed at adults responsible for property and garden management. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child, we will take reasonable steps to delete it as soon as possible.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or service offerings. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we protect your personal data.