Privacy Policy - Gardeners Norbury

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Norbury collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing gardening services to customers in the Norbury area. It applies to all Gardeners Norbury customers in the area, including anyone who makes an enquiry, requests a quote, books a service, receives an estimate, or otherwise interacts with our business in relation to gardening work. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in line with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using our services, you should understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have over your personal data. We aim to keep our practices clear and proportionate, collecting only the information needed to deliver high-quality gardening services and manage our business responsibly.

1. What Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

Identity information such as your name and, where relevant, the name of a business or property owner.
Contact information including your address, telephone number, and email address.
Service details such as the type of gardening work requested, service preferences, access instructions, and property notes.
Payment information where needed to process invoices, record payments, and manage accounts. We do not retain unnecessary payment details.
Communication records including messages, call notes, appointment arrangements, complaints, and feedback.
Technical information if you contact us electronically, such as basic device or message metadata where necessary for security and service administration.
Photographs or site records taken for quoting, planning, service delivery, or before-and-after documentation, where appropriate.

We usually collect this information directly from you. In some cases, we may receive details from another person acting on your behalf, such as a family member, property manager, landlord, tenant, or contractor, where they are authorised to do so.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To arrange and deliver gardening services.
To manage appointments, site access, and service instructions.
To communicate about bookings, changes, follow-ups, and service updates.
To issue invoices, record payments, and maintain business accounts.
To handle complaints, disputes, and service improvement matters.
To meet legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To protect our business, staff, and customers from fraud, misuse, or security issues.

We only use personal data in ways that are relevant to the services we provide. We do not sell personal information to third parties.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on the situation, Gardeners Norbury may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. This includes managing bookings, carrying out gardening work, and handling service-related communication.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these do not override your rights and freedoms. This includes maintaining records, improving our services, preventing fraud, and ensuring efficient business administration.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain information to comply with legal requirements, such as tax, accounting, recordkeeping, and regulatory duties.

Consent

Where consent is required, we will ask for it clearly and separately. For example, if we need to use certain photographs or contact details for a purpose that is not covered by contract or legitimate interests, we will rely on your consent. You may withdraw consent at any time, where applicable.

4. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with carefully selected third parties, but only when necessary and only to the extent required for our business operations. These third parties act as processors or independent controllers depending on their role.

Examples of processors may include:

IT and cloud service providers that store emails, documents, or scheduling information.
Accounting and invoicing providers that support financial administration.
Payment service providers that process transactions securely.
Communication tools used for message handling, appointment reminders, or business correspondence.
Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers, where required.

Where we use processors, we ensure appropriate data protection arrangements are in place so that your information is handled securely and only according to our instructions.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, court order, legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Gardeners Norbury, our customers, staff, or others. If the business is restructured or transferred, personal data may be shared as part of that process, subject to appropriate safeguards.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and in accordance with our legal obligations. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason for holding it.

Customer records are generally retained for the duration of our relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards to deal with queries, repeat bookings, or disputes.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
Communication records may be kept for a limited time to support service quality, business administration, and complaint resolution.
Photos and site notes are retained only as long as necessary for quoting, service evidence, or agreed business purposes.

When data is no longer needed, we take steps to delete, anonymise, or securely archive it. Retention is reviewed periodically to ensure we do not keep information longer than necessary.

6. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited internal access, and careful handling of paper and digital records. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to reduce risks and maintain a reasonable level of protection appropriate to the nature of the data we process.

7. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

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 where there is no good reason for us to keep it.
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
Right to data portability – to receive some data in a structured, commonly used format, where legally applicable.
Right to withdraw consent – if we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to raise concerns about our handling of your personal data with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so we can review and address your concern promptly.

8. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and property-related customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is necessary and lawful, such as if a child’s information appears in relation to a property record or household communication. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without an appropriate lawful basis, we will take steps to delete it where required.

9. International Transfers

If any service provider stores or processes data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect that information in line with applicable data protection law. This may include adequacy regulations or approved contractual protections.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data handling practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their personal data is used.

11. Summary of Our Commitment

Gardeners Norbury is committed to respecting your privacy and using personal data responsibly. We collect only what we need, use it for clear and lawful purposes, keep it only for as long as necessary, and work with processors who can help us safeguard it properly. We recognise that trust is essential in any service relationship, and we aim to process all data in a way that is transparent, secure, and compliant with data protection law.

By using our services in the Norbury area, customers can expect their personal information to be handled with care, lawful justification, and appropriate confidentiality.