Privacy Policy

Gardeners Lewisham Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Lewisham collects, uses, stores and protects personal data about its customers in the Lewisham area. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. This policy applies to all customers and prospective customers of Gardeners Lewisham whose personal data is processed in connection with gardening, grounds maintenance and related services provided in the Lewisham area.

By using Gardeners Lewisham services or by providing your personal data to us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in law or in the way we operate. The latest version will always apply to our processing of your personal data.

Data Controller

Gardeners Lewisham is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. As data controller, Gardeners Lewisham is responsible for determining the purposes and means of processing your personal data and for ensuring that such processing complies with data protection laws.

This policy covers all Gardeners Lewisham customers in the Lewisham area, including individuals, residential households, landlords, letting agents, businesses and community organisations who engage us for gardening or related services.

Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data when you contact us, request a quotation, enter into a contract with us or use our services:

Identification and contact details such as your name, postal address, service address, and any professional or business contact details you choose to share.

Communication details and records such as details you provide when you make an enquiry, request a quotation, provide feedback, or communicate with us in any other way.

Service and contract information such as descriptions of the services requested, frequency of visits, access instructions for the property, and any preferences you communicate about how work should be carried out.

Billing and transaction information such as records of invoices issued, amounts paid, payment method used and payment status. We do not store full payment card details.

Usage and technical information where relevant, such as information about how you access or use any online platforms, portals or digital tools that we may make available directly to our customers.

Photographs and site notes, for example, photographs of gardens or outdoor areas taken for the purposes of quotations, progress records, quality control or to evidence completion of works, where these may include images of your property.

Lawful Bases for Processing

Gardeners Lewisham processes your personal data only where there is a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract. We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotations, scheduling work, delivering gardening services, managing invoices and payments, and responding to queries about the services.

Legal obligation. We process personal data where necessary to comply with legal obligations, such as record-keeping, tax and accounting requirements and compliance with applicable health and safety regulations.

Legitimate interests. We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include managing and improving our services, handling customer queries, preventing fraud, ensuring site security, and maintaining appropriate business records.

Consent. In some cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where we wish to send you certain types of marketing communications not covered by legitimate interests. Where processing is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, arrange site visits and agree the scope of work.

To deliver gardening and related services at the agreed locations and times, and to manage access to the property.

To manage our relationship with you, including communicating about works, changes, delays, issues or follow up visits.

To issue invoices, process payments, and maintain accurate financial records.

To handle complaints, queries and feedback and to monitor service quality.

To maintain and improve our services, including staff training and internal analysis of how services are used.

To meet legal and regulatory requirements, including tax and accounting obligations.

To protect our rights, property and safety, and the rights, property and safety of our customers, staff and others, for example in connection with disputes or claims.

Data Sharing and Processors

We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and where appropriate safeguards are in place.

Service providers and processors. We may engage third party service providers to process personal data on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions. These processors may provide services such as cloud storage, scheduling tools, accounting or invoicing systems, document management or information technology support. Such providers are required to keep your data secure and to use it only for the purposes for which it was provided.

Professional advisers. We may share relevant information with professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary for legitimate business purposes or to comply with legal obligations.

Authorities and regulators. We may disclose personal data where required by law, regulation or court order, or to protect our rights or the rights of others, including in relation to tax, audit, health and safety, or insurance matters.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. If data is transferred outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area by our processors, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in line with data protection laws.

Data Retention

Gardeners Lewisham keeps personal data only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, to meet legal, accounting or reporting requirements, and to manage any disputes or claims.

In general, contact details, service records and invoice information are retained for up to seven years from the end of the relevant financial year, in order to comply with tax and accounting obligations and to maintain adequate records of services provided.

Photographs, site notes and access instructions are retained for as long as necessary to deliver the services and manage our relationship with you, and may be reviewed periodically and deleted where no longer needed.

Where we rely on consent for any processing activity, we will retain related data only for as long as we have your consent or until it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, whichever occurs first, unless a longer retention period is required by law.

Security of Your Personal Data

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 staff and processors who need it to perform their duties, using secure storage solutions and implementing appropriate procedures for handling and disposing of personal data.

While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your personal data, no system can be completely secure. You are encouraged to share only the personal data that is necessary for us to provide the services you have requested.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to the personal data that we hold about you. These rights apply to all Gardeners Lewisham customers in the Lewisham area, subject to certain legal limitations and exemptions:

Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation of whether 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 that we hold about you.

Right to erasure. You may have the right to 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 and we have no legal obligation to retain it.

Right to restriction of processing. You may have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, such as while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection you have raised.

Right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as the lawful basis, including in relation to certain types of direct marketing.

Right to data portability. In some situations, you may have the right to receive the personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to request that we transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

Where we rely on consent to process your personal data, you 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.

Contact and Complaints

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how Gardeners Lewisham processes your personal data, or if you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, you can contact us using the usual communication channels that you use to arrange or manage your services.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so that we can seek to resolve any concerns directly.