Privacy Policy

Gardeners Downe Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Downe collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data relating to our customers in our service area. It also explains your rights under data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related legislation. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Downe customers in our service area, whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Downe is a gardening and grounds maintenance service provider. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Downe is the controller of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used and are responsible for ensuring that it is handled lawfully and securely.

This Privacy Policy covers all personal data we collect and process about individuals who enquire about, use, or have used our services, including one-off or regular gardening work, maintenance visits, and related services within our operating area.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different types of personal data, depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. This may include the following categories of data.

Identification and contact details: name, address, service address, billing address, and other contact information such as general correspondence details you choose to provide.

Service and contract information: details of the services you request, site notes, visit schedules, work instructions, before and after job records, and communications relating to the performance of our contract with you.

Payment and transaction information: records of payments made to us, payment amounts, payment method type, and associated invoicing records. We do not store full card details if you pay by card using a third party payment processor.

Communication and correspondence information: records of your communications with us, including queries, complaints, feedback and any responses we provide.

Technical and usage data: limited technical information arising from your use of our website or online services, such as basic device and browsing information necessary for security, performance and service delivery.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, book a service, pay for our services, or communicate with us in any other way.

We may also receive personal data about you from third parties where this is necessary for providing our services, such as referral partners or payment processors, and only where it is lawful to do so.

Lawful bases for processing

We only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the processing activity, we rely on the following lawful bases.

Contract: we process personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, including to provide gardening services, issue invoices, manage your bookings and respond to your requests related to the services.

Legal obligation: we process personal data when this is necessary for us to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as maintaining proper financial records and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: we process personal data where this is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, and where these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing and improving our services, handling enquiries and complaints, maintaining security, preventing fraud, and keeping basic records of past work for reference and safety.

Consent: in limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example where you ask us to retain certain information or send you optional communications that are not strictly necessary for the performance of our contract. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the purposes set out below, in each case relying on one or more of the lawful bases described above.

To provide and manage services: to arrange site visits, carry out gardening services, record work completed, manage appointments, and handle your account-related matters.

To communicate with you: to respond to your enquiries, provide quotes, send important information about your bookings, work completion, changes to our terms or this Privacy Policy, and to request feedback where appropriate.

To manage payments and billing: to issue invoices, process payments through our payment processors, manage any refunds and maintain accurate accounting records.

To operate, improve and secure our business: to develop our services, train staff, manage our relationship with you, maintain appropriate records of past work, monitor for misuse or security incidents, and ensure the safety of our team and customers.

To comply with legal requirements: to meet our obligations under tax, accounting, health and safety and other applicable laws, and to respond to lawful requests from regulators or law enforcement bodies where required.

Data sharing and processors

We may share your personal data with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary and lawful. These organisations act as processors or, in some cases, as independent controllers.

Service providers and processors: we use third party providers to help us deliver our services and run our business, for example providers of payment processing, accounting, job scheduling, document storage, and information technology services. These providers act as processors and may only process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Professional advisers: we may share personal data with our professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where necessary for the services they provide to us.

Public authorities: we may disclose personal data to law enforcement agencies, regulators or other public authorities where required by law or where we consider it necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International transfers

Some of our service providers may be located outside the United Kingdom or may store data in other countries. Where this results in the transfer of your personal data to a country that does not provide an equivalent level of data protection, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the use of standard contractual clauses or other measures approved under data protection law, to protect your personal data.

Data retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In practice, this means that we typically retain customer and service records for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period afterwards, to handle queries, potential disputes or warranty issues. Financial and invoicing records may be retained for a longer period where required by law.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to those members of staff and service providers who need it for legitimate business purposes and requiring them to keep it confidential.

While we take reasonable steps to protect your personal data, no system can be completely secure. You are responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your own information, such as keeping any account details secure if you use online services.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to certain conditions and exemptions.

Right of access: you have the right to obtain confirmation of whether 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 ask us to correct or complete any personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction of processing: you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example 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 our lawful basis. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds or where the processing is required for legal claims.

Right to data portability: in some cases, you 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 this is technically feasible.

Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing before your consent was withdrawn.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data. We would, however, encourage you to contact us first so that we can address your concerns directly.

Changes 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 the law. Any updates will be effective from the date they are published in the latest version of this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.