Privacy Policy - Gardeners Eel Pie Island

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Eel Pie Island collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing gardening services to customers in the Eel Pie Island area. It applies to all Gardeners Eel Pie Island customers in the area, including anyone who makes an enquiry, receives a quotation, books a service, or otherwise interacts with our business.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy is written to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, who may process it on our behalf, and what rights you have over your personal information.

1. Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to individuals whose personal data is processed by Gardeners Eel Pie Island in connection with our gardening and related services in the local area. It covers customers, prospective customers, property managers, and any person whose details are provided to us for the purpose of arranging or delivering a service.

We only process personal data where it is necessary for legitimate business purposes, service delivery, legal compliance, or with your consent where required.

2. Personal data we collect

We collect only the information needed to provide gardening services effectively and responsibly. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

Identity information such as your name and title.
Contact information such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as property access notes, service preferences, and appointment history.
Billing and payment information such as invoice records and payment status.
Communication records including messages, enquiry details, complaints, and feedback.
Technical information if you contact us electronically, such as device or message metadata.
Site and property information relevant to carrying out the work safely and appropriately.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is necessary, lawful, and relevant to a specific request or legal obligation. If such data is ever provided to us, it will be handled with additional care and only where a valid lawful basis applies.

3. How we use your data

Gardeners Eel Pie Island uses personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To schedule and deliver gardening services.
To manage customer accounts, invoicing, and payment records.
To communicate about appointments, changes, or service-related updates.
To maintain service quality, record-keeping, and operational management.
To handle complaints, requests, and disputes.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To improve our services and ensure safe working practices.

We will only use your personal data for the purpose for which it was collected, unless we reasonably need to use it for a compatible purpose or where the law allows or requires us to do so.

4. Lawful basis for processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Gardeners Eel Pie Island relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes preparing quotations, arranging visits, carrying out garden maintenance, and managing payments.

Legal obligation

We may process and retain data where we must comply with legal obligations, such as accounting, tax, insurance, or record-keeping requirements.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include service administration, responding to enquiries, maintaining records, preventing fraud, and improving operations.

Consent

Where required, we will rely on your consent. If consent is used as the basis for processing, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. Retention of personal data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason it is held.

Enquiry records may be kept for a reasonable period to manage follow-up and service history.
Customer service and contract records are kept for the duration of the relationship and for a period afterwards where needed for legal or operational reasons.
Invoice and payment records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Complaint or dispute records may be retained longer where necessary to resolve issues or defend legal claims.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

6. Data processors and sharing

Gardeners Eel Pie Island may use trusted third-party service providers to help us operate our business. These organisations act as processors when they handle personal data on our instructions and only for agreed purposes. Processors may include:

Payment service providers.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers.
IT, cloud storage, and messaging service providers.
Administrative and scheduling tools used to manage customer work.
Professional advisers such as insurers, auditors, or legal advisers where necessary.

We require processors to protect personal data, use it only for specified purposes, and comply with applicable data protection laws. We do not sell personal data.

In some cases, we may also share data with public authorities, insurers, or other third parties where required by law, to protect our rights, or to deliver services properly. Any sharing will be limited to what is necessary and appropriate.

7. Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and careful management of records.

However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. While we work to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. We will act promptly if we become aware of any data incident that may affect your rights or freedoms.

8. Your rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply depending on the circumstances of the processing:

Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
Right to data portability – to request transfer of certain data in a structured, commonly used format, where legally applicable.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will assess the request in accordance with applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before responding to protect your information.

9. Automated decision-making

Gardeners Eel Pie Island does not use personal data for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on individuals. If this changes in future, we will update this policy and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

10. Complaints and supervision

If you have concerns about how your personal data is handled, you have the right to raise a complaint with the relevant data protection authority. We encourage you to raise concerns so that we can address them directly and promptly.

This policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is made available.

11. Summary of key commitments

Gardeners Eel Pie Island is committed to processing personal data in a way that is lawful, secure, and limited to what is necessary for service delivery. We collect only relevant information, use it for clear business purposes, retain it only as long as needed, and share it only with trusted processors or where required by law. We respect your privacy rights and aim to be transparent in every stage of data handling.