Privacy Policy
Gardeners Balham Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Balham collects, uses, stores and protects personal data of all customers in the Balham area and nearby neighbourhoods. It is intended to provide clear information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
By using our gardening and related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. This policy applies to all personal data processed by Gardeners Balham in connection with the provision of our services to residential and business customers.
Who We Are
Gardeners Balham provides gardening and related maintenance services to customers in Balham and the surrounding area. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Balham is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal information.
Personal Data We Collect
We collect and process only the personal data that is necessary to provide our services, manage our relationship with you and operate our business. Depending on your interactions with us, this may include:
Identification and contact details such as name, postal address, service address, billing address, and general location information within the Balham area.
Communication details such as your preferred contact methods and the content of messages you send to us, including enquiries, service requests, feedback or complaints.
Service and contract details such as records of the gardening services you request, service dates and times, notes about your garden and property relevant to the work to be carried out, before and after descriptions, and job history.
Payment and billing information such as bank transfer references, payment confirmations and invoice records. We do not store full card details where payment is made by card through third party payment processors.
Technical and usage information where relevant, such as basic information about how you interact with our website or digital content, including the pages you visit and the time and date of your visits. This may involve the use of cookies or similar technologies where permitted by law.
Any other information you choose to provide to us that is necessary for booking, delivering and managing our services, such as access instructions or specific preferences relating to your property or garden.
How We Collect Your Data
We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us, request a quote, book a service, communicate with us about an ongoing job, send feedback or otherwise interact with us. This can be via telephone, messaging services, online forms, written correspondence or in person when we visit your property.
We may also receive personal data indirectly where you have authorised a third party to share your details with us, for example if a letting agent or property manager engages us on your behalf, or where you are referred by an existing customer or business partner.
Lawful Bases for Processing
We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the specific processing activity, we rely on the following lawful bases:
Performance of a 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 handling enquiries, providing quotes, booking appointments, delivering gardening services and managing payments.
Legitimate interests. We may process your personal data where this is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes managing and improving our services, maintaining business records, handling customer service, protecting our business from fraud and defending legal claims.
Legal obligations. We process certain information to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as maintaining accounting, tax and invoicing records for the periods required by law.
Consent. In limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example for certain marketing communications where required by law. 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 to provide and manage our gardening services and to operate our business in the Balham area. In particular, we use your data to:
Respond to enquiries, provide quotes and arrange site visits.
Schedule and carry out gardening work at the correct address and at agreed times.
Communicate with you about ongoing or upcoming jobs, including changes to appointments or services.
Prepare and send invoices, process payments and manage accounts.
Keep accurate internal records of services provided, including your preferences and service history.
Handle any questions, feedback, complaints or disputes.
Improve our services, plan staffing and manage our operations.
Comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests from public authorities.
Data Retention
We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or to meet legal, accounting or reporting requirements.
In general, we retain customer and service records for as long as you remain an active customer and for a reasonable period afterwards to respond to queries, handle complaints and maintain accurate records of the services provided in the Balham area.
Financial and invoicing information is typically kept for the period required by applicable tax and accounting laws. After the relevant retention periods expire, personal data is securely deleted or anonymised so that it can no longer be linked to you.
Data Sharing and Processors
We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data only when necessary and in accordance with data protection law.
We may share your information with trusted third party service providers who act as data processors on our behalf. These may include providers of invoicing or accounting software, payment processing services, cloud storage or customer management tools, and providers of communication or scheduling systems. These processors are contractually required to process your data only in accordance with our instructions and to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it.
We may also need to share your personal data with professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers where this is necessary for our legitimate interests and subject to confidentiality obligations.
In some cases, we may disclose personal data where required to do so by law, for example to tax authorities or other public bodies, or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
International Transfers
Where any third party service providers or systems we use are located outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place before personal data is transferred. This may include using countries that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection or entering into contracts that contain standard data protection clauses approved by relevant authorities.
How We Protect Your Data
We take the security of personal data seriously and implement reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect your information against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage.
These measures may include limiting access to personal data to personnel who need it for their role, using secure storage and backup solutions and maintaining appropriate internal policies and procedures. While we take steps to protect your data, no method of transmission or storage can be guaranteed as completely secure.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to the personal data that Gardeners Balham holds about you. These rights apply to all our customers in the Balham area, subject to certain legal conditions and exceptions.
Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation that we process your personal data and to request a copy of that data, together with information about how we use it.
Right to rectification. You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you may request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and we are not required to retain it for legal reasons.
Right to restriction of processing. You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are verifying its accuracy or where you have objected to our use of it.
Right to object. You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including any direct marketing. We will stop processing your data for these purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is required for legal claims.
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, and that we transmit it to another controller where technically feasible.
Where we rely on consent, you also have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
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 changes in legal requirements. Any updated version will apply to all personal data from the date it is published. You are encouraged to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how Gardeners Balham protects your information.
