Gardeners Southgate Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Southgate collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to our customers in the Southgate area. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. By using our gardening and related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Southgate customers, prospective customers and former customers in our service area. It covers personal data collected when you contact us, request a quote, enter into a contract for services, visit our website, or interact with us in any other way in connection with our services.

Data Controller

Gardeners Southgate is the data controller for personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with applicable data protection laws.

Personal Data We Collect

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

Identification and contact details, such as your full name, home address, billing address, and any other address at which services are provided.

Contact preferences and communication details, such as your preferred contact method and records of communication between you and Gardeners Southgate, including notes of calls and service requests.

Service and contract information, such as details about the services you request or receive, your property type and size, access instructions, schedules, quotations, invoices and payment records.

Technical and usage data, such as basic information about how you interact with our website or digital communications, including date and time of visits and basic device or browser data, where applicable and legally permitted.

Financial information, such as limited payment-related information needed to process payments and maintain accounting records. We do not store full card details when using third-party payment processors.

How We Collect Personal Data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by telephone, through online forms, in person, or by any other means to request information, quotes, or services.

We may also collect personal data during the delivery of services at your property, for example to confirm access requirements, assess the garden or outdoor areas, or update your service records.

Where permitted by law, we may receive limited personal data from third parties, such as payment providers or business partners, in order to complete transactions or manage bookings.

Lawful Basis for Processing

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

Contract: Processing is necessary for entering into or performing a contract with you, such as providing gardening services, preparing quotes, scheduling visits, and handling billing.

Legal obligation: Processing is necessary to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, tax requirements and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate interests: Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in operating and improving our business, managing customer relationships, preventing fraud, ensuring site and system security, and maintaining accurate records, provided that such interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.

Consent: In limited cases, where required by law, we may rely on your consent, such as for certain types of direct marketing. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To provide and manage gardening and related services, including creating and managing your customer account, arranging site visits, carrying out agreed works, and following up where necessary.

To prepare and issue quotes, invoices and payment confirmations, and to manage any queries about charges or services.

To communicate with you regarding bookings, service updates, appointment changes, and customer support.

To manage our business operations, including planning routes and schedules, monitoring service quality, training staff, and maintaining secure systems.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including record-keeping, tax, and responding to valid requests from regulatory or law enforcement authorities.

To send service-related information or, where lawful, marketing communications about our services. You may opt out of marketing at any time.

Data Retention

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

Customer and contract records are generally retained for the duration of your relationship with Gardeners Southgate and for a reasonable period afterwards, to handle queries, complaints, or potential legal claims, and to comply with statutory retention periods.

Financial and transaction data may be retained for a longer period where required by tax laws and other legal obligations.

When personal data is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and no legal obligation requires us to keep it, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

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 in order to deliver our services and operate our business. These may include:

IT and hosting providers who supply or support our business systems, website, and data storage.

Payment processors and financial service providers who facilitate secure payments and transactions.

Professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, to the extent necessary for them to provide services to us.

Service partners or subcontractors, in limited circumstances, where they assist in delivering specific aspects of the gardening services you have requested.

When using processors, we ensure they are bound by written contracts requiring them to process personal data only on our instructions, keep it secure, and comply with data protection law.

We may also share personal data with public authorities, regulators, or law enforcement agencies where required by law or where necessary to protect our legal rights or the rights of others.

International Transfers

Where any of our service providers or systems involve transfers of personal data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data remains protected. These may include using standard contractual clauses or ensuring that the destination country has an adequate level of data protection as recognised by the relevant authorities.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures include limiting access to personal data to those employees, contractors, and processors who need it for their duties and who are subject to confidentiality obligations.

Your Data Protection Rights

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

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and, if so, to request a copy of that data along with certain information about how we use it.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data about you is corrected or completed without undue delay.

Right to erasure: You may request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances, 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 request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain cases, such as while we are investigating a concern about accuracy or our use of the data.

Right to data portability: In certain circumstances, you may request to receive personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including profiling based on those interests. You also have the right to object at any time to processing for direct marketing purposes.

Where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Exercising Your Rights and Complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or raise a concern about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using our usual customer contact channels. We will respond to your request or complaint in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your rights have been infringed. You may do this in the country where you live, work, or where you believe a breach has occurred.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, our data processing practices, or legal requirements. Any updated version will be made available through our usual customer communication channels. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.