Gardeners Penge Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Penge collects, uses, stores and protects personal data of its customers and prospective customers. It applies to all Gardeners Penge customers and prospective customers in the local service area, regardless of how they contact us or engage our gardening services.

Gardeners Penge is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in accordance with the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. We only collect and process data where we have a clear and lawful reason to do so.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different types of personal data about you depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. This may include:

Identification and contact details such as name, postal address, service address, billing address, and general location details such as town or district.

Communication details such as the content of enquiries, service requests, quotations, feedback, complaints and any other correspondence between you and Gardeners Penge.

Service information such as details about your garden, access instructions, preferred days and times for visits, records of work carried out, photographs of garden areas taken to plan or record services where necessary, and notes relating to your preferences.

Billing and payment information such as payment status, amounts, due dates and basic transaction references. We do not store full payment card details, but we may receive confirmation of payments from payment providers.

Technical and usage data where relevant, such as your use of our website or online forms, including dates, times and pages visited. This may be collected using cookies or similar technologies where applicable and permitted by law.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to ask for information, request a quote, book a service, or otherwise communicate with us. This can be by phone, in person, in writing, or by using online contact forms where available.

We may also collect personal data from publicly available sources or third parties where reasonably necessary, for example to confirm address details or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements. Any such collection will always be carried out in line with data protection law.

Lawful bases for processing

Under data protection law we must have a lawful basis for each use of your personal data. Gardeners Penge relies on the following lawful bases.

Contract. We process your personal data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform our contract with you. This includes providing quotations, delivering gardening and related services, managing appointments, and communicating with you about the work.

Legal obligation. We process some data to comply with our legal obligations, such as record keeping for tax and accounting, responding to lawful requests from authorities, and maintaining health and safety records.

Legitimate interests. We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Examples include managing and improving our services, handling general business administration, protecting our business from fraud or misuse, and keeping records of previous work to plan future services.

Consent. In limited cases we may rely on your consent, for example where this is required for certain types of direct marketing. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us, and this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

How we use your personal data

We may use your personal data for the following purposes.

To provide quotes for gardening services and assess what work is required at your property.

To schedule and deliver gardening and related services and to manage ongoing maintenance arrangements.

To communicate with you about appointments, access, rescheduling, or changes to our services or terms.

To issue invoices, process payments, and manage any queries relating to billing.

To maintain records of work performed, including garden notes and photographs where necessary to monitor progress or plan future visits.

To handle complaints, disputes, or legal claims involving our services.

To maintain and improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of our services and business operations.

Sharing and processors

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who process data on our behalf. These organisations act as data processors and only process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.

Examples of such processors include providers of accounting or bookkeeping software, providers of invoicing or payment processing services, providers of email or communication services, and information technology and cloud storage providers used to store our business records securely.

We may also share personal data with professional advisers such as accountants, or with insurers, where this is necessary for legitimate business purposes, for example in connection with tax matters, audits, or insurance claims.

Where required by law, we may share data with public authorities or law enforcement agencies. We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International transfers

Some of our service providers may operate or store data outside the United Kingdom. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the use of standard contractual clauses or reliance on an adequacy decision, to ensure your data remains protected to a standard essentially equivalent to UK law.

Data retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

In general, records relating to our contracts with customers, including invoices and details of work carried out, are retained for a number of years after the end of the relevant tax year, to comply with tax and accounting obligations and to respond to any queries or disputes.

Where we hold contact and service details for prospective customers who have not gone ahead with a service, we will retain this information for a limited period to follow up enquiries and to maintain records of quotes provided. Data kept for marketing purposes based on consent or legitimate interest will be reviewed periodically and removed or anonymised where it is no longer needed or where you ask us to stop such use.

When data is no longer required it will be securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise disposed of in a safe manner.

How we protect your data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those who need it for their role, using secure systems to store digital records, and taking care with any paper-based records.

Although we take reasonable steps to protect your personal data, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We regularly review our security arrangements and update them where necessary.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law you have several important rights in relation to your personal data.

You have the right to be informed about how we collect and use your data, which is the purpose of this Privacy Policy and any related notices.

You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you and to receive a copy of that data.

You have the right to request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

You have the right to request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.

You have the right to request restriction of processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are checking the accuracy of data or considering an objection you have raised.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests, including any direct marketing based on that ground.

You have the right to data portability, which in some circumstances allows you to receive personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used format and to transmit it to another controller.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve any concerns.

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, how we process personal data, or legal requirements. Any changes will apply to all Gardeners Penge customers in our service area from the date the updated policy is made available. We recommend that you review this policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we protect your personal data.