Gardeners Leamouth Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Leamouth collects, uses, stores and shares personal data about customers in the local area. It also explains the legal bases we rely on under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act, how long we keep your data, and the rights you have in relation to your personal information.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Leamouth customers and prospective customers within our service area, including those who contact us for quotations, make bookings or use our gardening and related services.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Leamouth is a local gardening service provider offering garden maintenance, landscaping and related services to residential and commercial customers in the surrounding area. We act as the data controller for the personal data we collect about our customers and prospective customers.

By engaging with us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, and the most recent version will apply to our use of your personal data.

Personal data we collect

We only collect personal data that we need in order to provide our services, manage our relationship with you and comply with our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, service address, and any other information you provide to identify yourself when you contact us or make a booking.

Communication details, such as the content of your messages and any information you provide when you call, write to us, or speak with us in person, including enquiries, instructions and feedback.

Service and contract details, including information about the gardening services you request, your property type, access arrangements, visit notes, quotations, invoices, payment history and any relevant images or descriptions of your garden that you choose to share with us for planning or quotation purposes.

Payment-related information, such as the method of payment you use and records of payments made. We do not store full card details when using third party payment processors; those providers process the payment securely on our behalf.

Technical and usage information, where applicable, such as basic details about how you interact with our online content, requests submitted through online forms and the date and time of your interactions with us.

How we collect your personal data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quotation, ask for information, make a booking, pay for our services, or provide feedback or complaints. This can be in person, by post, via online forms or through other communication methods you choose to use.

We may also receive personal data about you from third parties where you have given permission for your details to be passed to us, for example from recommendation platforms or business partners who refer you to our services. In such cases, we only use that information to contact you and provide the services requested.

Lawful bases for processing your data

We process your personal data only when we have a lawful basis to do so under GDPR. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract. We process your personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to provide gardening services, issue quotations, manage bookings, take payment and communicate with you about your service.

Legal obligation. We may process your personal data when necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory duties, such as tax and accounting requirements, record-keeping obligations and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests. We process certain personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include managing our customer relationships, scheduling work efficiently, improving our services, handling queries and complaints, and protecting our business and property.

Consent. In limited circumstances we may rely on your consent, for example if we wish to send you certain types of marketing communications that require consent under data protection or electronic communications laws. When we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services, including preparing quotations, scheduling work, visiting your property, and carrying out the services you have requested.

To manage our relationship with you, including handling enquiries, keeping you informed about appointments, responding to feedback or complaints, and providing customer support.

To process payments, issue invoices and maintain accounting records, including for tax and audit purposes.

To plan and improve our services, for example by reviewing common requests and feedback to better understand customer needs and manage resources.

To protect our legitimate business interests, such as managing risk, preventing misuse of our services, and establishing or defending legal claims.

To send you information about our services where permitted by law and where you have not objected to such communications.

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, or who otherwise support the delivery of our services. These may include:

Payment service providers who process payments and handle card transactions securely.

Accounting or bookkeeping service providers who assist us with financial record-keeping and reporting.

IT service providers who supply hosting, customer management tools or communications systems that we use to store and manage customer information.

Professional advisers, such as legal or insurance advisers, where necessary to obtain advice, manage disputes or handle claims.

Public authorities or regulatory bodies where we are legally required to do so, such as for tax or law enforcement purposes.

Where we use data processors, we ensure that appropriate contracts and safeguards are in place so that your personal data is processed only on our instructions, is kept secure and is not used for the processor's own purposes.

International transfers

If any of our service providers are based outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, or store data in another country, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with data protection laws. This may include using data transfer agreements based on approved standard contractual clauses.

Data retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. The specific retention period may vary depending on the nature of the data and our relationship with you.

Customer and service records, such as contact details, service history and invoices, are typically retained for a number of years after the end of our relationship, in line with legal limitation periods and tax record requirements.

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

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exceptions. These include:

Right of access. You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with information about how we use it.

Right to rectification. You have the right to ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you have the right to ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you have withdrawn your consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

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

Right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including for direct marketing. We will stop processing your data for such purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds to continue.

Right to data portability. In certain situations, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller, where technically feasible.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve any concerns directly.

Security of your personal data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. These measures are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risks presented by the processing of your data. However, no system or transmission of data can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and you share information with us at your own risk.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, how we handle personal data or legal requirements. Any changes will take effect when the updated Privacy Policy is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.