Privacy Policy - Gardeners Hither Green

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Hither Green collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing gardening services to customers in the Hither Green area. It applies to all Gardeners Hither Green customers in the area, including individuals who enquire about our services, receive quotations, book appointments, request follow-up work, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our gardening services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy explains 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 data.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only the information necessary to deliver our services, manage our business, and meet our legal obligations. The personal data we may collect includes:

Identity details such as your name and, where relevant, the name of your household, business, or property manager.
Contact details including address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as the type of gardening work requested, property access notes, preferred appointment times, and service history.
Billing and payment information such as invoice records, payment status, and transaction references.
Communication records including enquiries, messages, complaints, feedback, and notes from calls or visits.
Technical information if you interact with us digitally, such as basic device or usage information needed to maintain security and service performance.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless you choose to provide it to us and it is necessary for a specific service-related reason, such as access or safety information. If special category data is ever required, we will handle it with additional safeguards and only where a valid legal condition applies.

2. How We Use Personal Data

Gardeners Hither Green uses personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, book visits, and deliver gardening services.
To manage customer accounts, job notes, and service schedules.
To communicate with you about bookings, changes, service updates, or follow-up work.
To issue invoices, record payments, and manage financial administration.
To respond to questions, complaints, or requests for support.
To improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of our services.
To meet legal, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations.
To protect against fraud, misuse, or unauthorised access.

We only use your data where it is necessary for a clear and legitimate purpose. We do not sell personal data.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. Gardeners Hither Green relies on the following lawful bases depending on the context:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes preparing quotes, arranging services, carrying out gardening work, and managing billing.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include maintaining records, improving our services, preventing fraud, managing service quality, and ensuring the security of our operations.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain records where required by law, including tax, accounting, insurance, or health and safety requirements.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where you voluntarily provide information beyond what is necessary for a service. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect processing already carried out lawfully before it was withdrawn.

4. Sharing Data and Processors

We may share personal data only when necessary and only with trusted parties acting on our instructions or where legally required. These parties may include processors who help us operate and deliver services. Examples of processors may include:

Administrative and scheduling providers used to organise appointments and manage customer records.
Accounting and bookkeeping processors used to prepare invoices, maintain financial records, and support tax compliance.
Payment service providers used to handle payments securely.
IT and cloud storage providers used to store data, maintain system security, and support service continuity.
Professional advisers such as insurers, legal advisers, or auditors where necessary.

Where a third party processes personal data on our behalf, we require them to act under contract, follow appropriate confidentiality obligations, and implement suitable technical and organisational security measures. We do not allow processors to use your data for their own independent purposes.

We may also disclose information where required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of Gardeners Hither Green, our customers, or others.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including meeting legal, accounting, and insurance requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of record and the reason it is held.

Customer and service records are generally retained for the period needed to manage the service relationship and any follow-up issues.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
Communication records may be kept for a reasonable period to resolve disputes, maintain service continuity, or improve customer support.
Security or incident records may be retained where necessary to investigate or prevent misuse.

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

6. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from loss, unauthorised access, accidental disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, password protection, secure storage, limited staff access, and careful selection of processors. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work to reduce risk and to respond promptly to any suspected data incident.

7. Your Rights

As a customer or data subject, you have rights under data protection law. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and exemptions, but we will always consider and respond to valid requests carefully.

Right of access – you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification – you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to erasure – in some cases, you can ask us to delete your personal data.
Right to restriction – you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object – you can object to processing based on legitimate interests in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability – in some situations, you may request that we provide your data in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe your data has been handled improperly. We encourage you to raise concerns with us first so that we can try to resolve the matter fairly and promptly.

8. Children’s Data

Our gardening services are aimed at adults and households. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is provided incidentally in the course of arranging services for a household and is necessary for safety, access, or scheduling. Where such data is processed, it will be handled with care and only to the extent necessary.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, service delivery, or operational practice. Any updates will apply from the date they are published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers in Hither Green to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their personal data is handled.

10. Summary of Our Commitment

Gardeners Hither Green is committed to respecting privacy, using personal data responsibly, and keeping information secure. We collect only what we need, process it only where we have a lawful basis, retain it only as long as necessary, and work with processors that meet appropriate data protection standards. Our approach is designed to support reliable gardening services while safeguarding the rights and freedoms of every customer in the area.