Gardeners Forestdale Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Forestdale collects, uses, stores and shares personal data about its customers and prospective customers. It applies to all Gardeners Forestdale customers and service users in the Forestdale area, including anyone who contacts us to request information, a quotation or ongoing gardening services.

Who this Privacy Policy applies to

This Privacy Policy applies to all individual customers and potential customers of Gardeners Forestdale in the Forestdale area, as well as any individuals who communicate with us on behalf of a household or property where services are provided. By engaging with Gardeners Forestdale, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Personal data we collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary for the provision and management of our gardening and related services. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, home address, and preferred communication details you choose to provide so that we can contact you about quotes, bookings and ongoing services.

Property and service information, such as the address where services are carried out, access instructions, service preferences, lawn and garden size, and any other relevant details you choose to share to allow us to plan and perform our work.

Billing and payment information, such as details required to issue invoices, records of payments received, and any notes relating to billing queries or arrangements. We do not store full payment card data where payments are processed via third-party payment providers.

Communication records, including records of calls, messages and correspondence you send to us, and any notes we make in response, to allow us to manage your enquiries, bookings and customer care.

Technical and usage information, where applicable, such as basic technical information generated when you visit our online pages, limited to what is necessary for security, performance and service improvement. We do not seek to identify you personally from such data unless it is necessary and lawful to do so.

How we collect personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact Gardeners Forestdale, request a quotation, make a booking, or use our services. This may be over the phone, in person, or through online or written communication. We may also collect information generated by our own records of the services we provide to you, such as visit history and service notes.

Lawful basis for processing your data

Gardeners Forestdale processes personal data only where we have a lawful basis under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. Depending on the context, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract: We process your personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, including providing estimates, scheduling visits, delivering gardening services and handling payments.

Legal obligation: We process certain data where we are required to do so by law, for example for tax and accounting purposes.

Legitimate interests: We process data for our legitimate business interests, provided these interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms. These interests include managing our relationship with you, improving our services, ensuring site and system security, and handling queries or complaints.

Consent: In limited situations where we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional communication, you are free to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data to deliver and manage our services and to run Gardeners Forestdale responsibly. This includes:

Providing quotes, arranging visits, carrying out gardening and related services, and managing bookings and schedules.

Issuing invoices, recording payments, and maintaining internal accounting and financial records.

Responding to your questions, feedback and complaints, and providing customer support.

Keeping records of work performed at your property for service quality, safety and planning of future visits.

Maintaining and improving our business operations, including monitoring service quality, training, and ensuring security and integrity of our systems.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf, only where necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. These may include:

Payment processing providers that securely handle card or electronic payments.

Accounting or bookkeeping service providers who assist us in maintaining required business and financial records.

IT and hosting providers that supply and maintain the systems we use to store and process data.

Professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where necessary for legitimate business or legal reasons.

When we use data processors, they are only permitted to process your data according to our instructions and must take appropriate measures to protect it. We may also share personal data with public authorities or other third parties where required by law or where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

International transfers

Where any of our service providers or systems transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include approved standard contractual clauses or other lawful mechanisms designed to protect your data and your rights.

Data retention

Gardeners Forestdale keeps personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes of processing, and applicable legal requirements.

In general, customer and service records are retained for as long as you remain an active customer and for a reasonable period afterwards, typically several years, to enable us to respond to queries, maintain business records and comply with tax and legal obligations. When data is no longer needed, 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 limiting access to personal data to those employees and service providers who have a business need to know it and requiring that they process your data only on our instructions and subject to confidentiality obligations.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to conditions and legal limitations. Your rights include:

Right of access: You can request confirmation that we process your personal data and obtain a copy of the data we hold about you.

Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct or complete personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you can request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no legal obligation to retain it.

Right to restriction of processing: You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in specific situations, such as where you contest its accuracy or object to our use of it.

Right to data portability: In some cases, you may request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or that we transmit it to another controller where this is technically feasible.

Right to object: You may object to certain processing of your personal data based on our legitimate interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for legal claims.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time. This will not affect processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Exercising your rights and complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about how Gardeners Forestdale handles your personal data, you can contact us using the usual communication methods you use for our services. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws and may request information from you to confirm your identity before acting on your request.

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

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, our data handling practices or applicable laws. Any changes will take effect when the updated Privacy Policy is made available to customers. We recommend that you review it periodically to stay informed about how Gardeners Forestdale protects your personal data.