Privacy Policy

Gardeners Hornchurch Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Hornchurch collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers. It applies to all Gardeners Hornchurch customers and service users in our operating area, including individuals who contact us for quotes, make bookings, or otherwise interact with our gardening and related services.

Who We Are

Gardeners Hornchurch is a local gardening service provider operating in the Hornchurch area and surrounding locations. In relation to the personal data we collect and process, we act as a data controller. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used, in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different types of personal data in the course of providing our services. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, service address, and general location details relevant to providing gardening services.

Communication details, including records of your communications with us such as enquiries, quotes, service instructions, feedback and complaints, whether made in writing, by phone, or in person.

Service and contract information, including details of the gardening services you request, service dates, appointment times, instructions regarding access to your property, service notes and related correspondence.

Billing and payment details, such as invoices, payment records, and information required for processing payments. We do not store full payment card details if electronic payments are processed through secure third party payment processors.

Technical and usage information, which may include basic information about how you interact with our website or online content, such as pages visited, time spent and general device information. This may be collected through cookies or similar technologies where applicable and in compliance with consent requirements.

How We Collect Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request information or a quotation, make a booking, enter into a service contract, or otherwise communicate with us. This may occur through telephone calls, messages, our website contact forms, or face to face meetings on site.

We may also receive personal data from third parties where this is necessary to provide our services, for example if a managing agent, landlord, tenant or family member contacts us on your behalf with your consent or where it is otherwise lawful to do so.

Lawful Bases for Processing

We only process your personal data where we have a valid lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract: We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes, scheduling and delivering gardening services, managing your account, and handling payments.

Legal obligation: We may process your data where we are legally required to do so, for example for tax, accounting, or record keeping obligations, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: We may process your 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 relationship with you, improving our services, protecting our business, and handling queries or complaints.

Consent: In some limited situations we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of direct marketing communications or the use of non essential cookies. Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services requested by you, including site visits, maintenance, and other agreed work.

To prepare and provide quotations, confirm appointments, and communicate with you about your bookings and any changes to them.

To manage billing and payments, issue invoices and receipts, and maintain financial records in compliance with relevant laws.

To respond to enquiries, feedback, and complaints, and to provide ongoing customer support.

To manage our business operations, including planning routes, managing staff workloads, and improving the quality, safety and efficiency of our services.

To protect our legal rights, for example in connection with disputes, claims, enforcement of contractual terms, or fraud prevention.

To send you information about services that may be relevant to you, where permitted by law and where you have not opted out of such communications.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and where appropriate safeguards are in place.

These third parties may include:

Service providers who act as data processors and provide services to us such as payment processing, accounting, information technology support, secure data storage, and administrative support. These providers are only permitted to process your personal data on our instructions and must protect it appropriately.

Professional advisers including accountants, auditors, legal advisers and consultants who assist us in running our business and complying with our legal obligations.

Public authorities or law enforcement agencies where we are legally obliged to disclose information, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Any third party involved in a business transfer, merger or restructuring relating to Gardeners Hornchurch, in which case personal data may be disclosed as part of the transaction in accordance with data protection law.

Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet any legal, accounting or reporting obligations.

In practice this means:

Customer and service records are generally retained for the duration of our relationship with you and for a period afterwards, to enable us to answer questions or handle any disputes and to comply with legal requirements. This period may typically be up to six years after the end of the relevant tax year, in line with standard limitation periods and accounting rules.

Quotation and enquiry information may be retained for a shorter period where no ongoing customer relationship is formed, unless a longer period is required by law or necessary to protect our legal rights.

Where we rely on consent for particular types of communication, we may continue to hold a record of your contact details and consent status until you withdraw consent or we no longer need the data for that purpose.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those staff and service providers who need it for legitimate business purposes and requiring them to keep it confidential and secure.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection laws, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights apply to all Gardeners Hornchurch customers and service users in our operating area, subject to certain legal conditions and exemptions. Your rights include:

Right of access: You have the right to ask for confirmation that we process your personal data and to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data concerning you.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you may request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.

Right to restriction of processing: You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in specific situations, such as while we are verifying its accuracy or assessing an objection you have raised.

Right to data portability: Where we process your personal data by automated means on the basis of your consent or a contract, you may have the right to receive the data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where it is based on our legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes. We will stop processing your data for direct marketing if you object. For other legitimate interest processing, we will stop unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is required for legal claims.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. In the United Kingdom, this is the Information Commissioners Office.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

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