Privacy Policy

Gardeners Keston Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Keston collects, uses, stores and shares personal data about its customers in Keston and the surrounding area. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Keston customers in our service area, including prospective, current and former customers.

Who We Are

Gardeners Keston is a local gardening and grounds maintenance service provider. When this Privacy Policy refers to we, us or our, it means Gardeners Keston acting as the controller of your personal data. As the controller, we decide how and why your personal data is used and are responsible for complying with applicable data protection laws.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is relevant to providing our services, managing our business and meeting our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

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

Communication details, such as your preferred contact method and the content of correspondence between you and us, including enquiries, quotes, bookings, feedback and complaints.

Service information, such as details of your garden or outdoor space, property access instructions, photographs taken to plan, deliver or evidence work, records of work completed, schedules, and any special requirements you tell us about.

Contract and transaction data, such as dates of services, agreed prices, payment status, invoices, receipts, credit notes, and records of any promotional offers or discounts you use.

Technical and usage information, where relevant, such as information about how you contact us through our website, forms or online tools. This may include device details, approximate location, and usage logs where these are generated by our systems.

In limited cases, we may collect information about health or accessibility where it is directly relevant to how we deliver our services safely, for example where you tell us about mobility needs or vulnerabilities we should consider when arranging access to your property.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data in several ways:

Directly from you, when you contact us for a quote, make a booking, request a visit, sign up for ongoing maintenance, or communicate with us by phone, in person, by post or through online channels.

From our interactions with you, as we carry out garden visits, maintain records of work completed, update schedules and issue invoices, reminders or service notices.

From third parties, where lawful and appropriate. For example, if you are introduced to us by another customer, an agent or a property manager, or where we work with subcontractors or partners who share information necessary to deliver your services.

Automatically, where limited technical information is generated by your use of our website or digital services, such as logs that help us secure our systems and understand how our online tools are used.

Our Lawful Basis for Using Your Data

We rely on one or more of the following lawful bases to process your personal data:

Contract. We process your personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, such as providing gardening or maintenance services, issuing quotes, or handling payments and invoices.

Legitimate interests. We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes managing and improving our services, keeping business records, handling queries and complaints, and protecting our business from fraud or misuse.

Legal obligation. We process certain personal data to comply with laws and regulations, such as maintaining accounting records, tax records and records required by regulatory authorities.

Consent. Where we rely on your consent, for example for certain types of marketing communications or for using particular images for promotional purposes, we will only process your personal data in that way after you have given clear consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide, manage and improve our gardening and maintenance services, including arranging visits, planning work, and keeping records of completed work.

To communicate with you about quotes, bookings, schedules, invoices, payments, service updates and any changes to our terms or policies.

To manage our relationship with you, including handling enquiries, feedback, complaints and requests to exercise your data protection rights.

To maintain accurate business, financial and tax records and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.

To protect our staff, customers and property, including managing access instructions and responding to safety or security concerns.

To analyse how our services are used and to plan improvements to our operations, pricing, staffing and customer experience.

To send you information about services that may be of interest to you, where we are permitted by law to do so and, where required, where you have given us your consent.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary and lawful, including:

Service providers and processors who perform functions on our behalf, such as payment processors, accounting and bookkeeping services, IT and cloud hosting providers, customer management or scheduling tools, and document storage and backup services.

Subcontractors and specialist contractors, where we need their assistance to deliver services to you. We share only the information required to perform the relevant task, such as your address, contact details and service requirements.

Professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors, insurers or legal advisers, where necessary to manage our business, obtain advice or handle disputes.

Regulators, law enforcement and other authorities, where we are legally required to provide information or where sharing is necessary to protect our rights, the rights of others or to detect or prevent crime.

Where we use processors, we require them to handle your data securely, use it only in accordance with our instructions and applicable law, and not to use it for their own unrelated purposes.

Data Retention

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

Customer records and service history are generally kept for as long as you remain a customer and for a period after your last interaction with us, to answer queries, handle complaints and demonstrate our past work, and to comply with tax and accounting rules.

Financial and transactional records, such as invoices and payment history, are kept for the period required by tax and financial regulations.

Communication records, such as emails and messages, are retained for an appropriate period to manage our relationship with you, resolve issues and maintain evidence of our interactions.

Where personal data is no longer required, we will delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.

International Transfers

Some of our service providers and processors may store or access personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using service providers located in countries with adequate data protection laws or using standard contractual clauses or equivalent mechanisms approved by data protection authorities.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, encryption in transit where appropriate, regular backups and staff awareness. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system can be entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your Data Protection Rights

If you are a customer of Gardeners Keston in our service area, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions under the law:

The right of access. You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we use it.

The right to rectification. You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

The right to erasure. You can ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no other lawful basis for retaining it.

The right to restrict processing. You can ask us to restrict the way we use your data in certain situations, for example while we check its accuracy or assess an objection you have raised.

The right to object. You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including for direct marketing. We will stop processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests or where processing is needed for legal claims.

The right to data portability. Where our processing is based on consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, you may request to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

The right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent for particular processing, you can withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before it was withdrawn.

You also have the right to raise concerns with a data protection supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, the way we process personal data or changes in law. Updated versions will apply from the date they are issued. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your personal data.