Privacy Policy

Gardeners Holloway Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Holloway collects, uses, stores, and protects the personal data of its customers and prospective customers. It applies to all Gardeners Holloway customers and service users within our operating area, including individuals who contact us for quotations, make bookings, receive services, or otherwise interact with us.

Gardeners Holloway is committed to complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and all applicable data protection laws. We only process personal data where there is a clear and lawful basis to do so, and we handle all information with care and respect.

Data We Collect

We collect and process personal data that is necessary for us to provide our gardening and related services, run our business, and meet our legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, service address, and any other address relevant to the services we provide.

Communication details, such as your preferred contact methods and records of your communications with us, including enquiries, quotes, bookings, complaints, and feedback.

Service and contract details, including information about the services you request or receive from us, such as the type of gardening work, frequency of visits, property layout information relevant to the service, access instructions, and any before or after photographs taken to document work, where applicable.

Billing and payment information, such as invoices issued, payment records, and, where relevant, limited payment-related information required to confirm that a payment has been made. Gardeners Holloway does not store full card details when payments are made through third-party payment providers.

Technical and usage data, where you visit our website or engage with us online, including basic information that may be collected through cookies or similar technologies, such as your browser type, approximate location, and pages visited, where this is enabled.

Any other information you choose to provide to us when using our services or contacting us, for example special instructions relating to your property or preferences on how services are delivered.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Gardeners Holloway relies on the following lawful bases:

Performance of a contract. We process personal data to enter into and fulfil our contract with you. This includes providing quotations, booking visits, carrying out gardening services, managing your account, and processing payments.

Legitimate interests. We process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and those interests are not overridden by your rights. This may include managing our customer relationships, planning and improving our services, protecting our business, preventing fraud, and ensuring the security of our personnel and equipment when on site.

Legal obligations. We process certain personal data in order to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as maintaining accounting and tax records.

Consent. In some circumstances we may rely on your consent, for example where you agree to receive marketing communications from us. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time by contacting us or by using any opt-out mechanism provided.

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 responding to enquiries, preparing and sending quotations, confirming bookings, attending appointments, and carrying out agreed work.

To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, ongoing services, changes to services, and important updates regarding your account or our terms.

To manage billing, process payments, issue invoices and receipts, and administer any refunds or adjustments.

To maintain business records and comply with accounting, tax, and other legal obligations.

To improve and develop our services, for example by reviewing feedback, analysing patterns of service use, and monitoring the quality of our work.

To ensure the safety and security of our team and your property, including keeping appropriate records of visits and work completed.

To send you information about services that may be of interest to you, where permitted by law and, where required, with your consent.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with third parties only where this is necessary, lawful, and subject to appropriate safeguards.

Service providers. We may share personal data with carefully selected third-party processors who provide services to us, such as payment processing, accounting support, IT and hosting services, communication tools, and document storage. These providers are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and for the purposes we specify. They are required to keep your data secure and confidential.

Professional advisers. We may share information with professional advisers, such as accountants or legal advisers, where this is necessary for the services they provide to us and for compliance with our legal obligations.

Authorities and regulators. We may share personal data where we are required to do so by law, regulation, or court order, or where such disclosure is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Other third parties. In the unlikely event that we are involved in a business reorganisation, merger, or similar transaction, we may need to share personal data as part of that process, always ensuring that appropriate protections are in place.

Where we use processors located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are used to protect your data in accordance with data protection law, such as standard contractual clauses or equivalent mechanisms.

Data Retention

Gardeners Holloway keeps personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In general, we retain customer records and service information for as long as you remain a customer and for a period thereafter to handle any queries, disputes, or legal claims. Accounting and tax records are typically kept for the period required by applicable law.

Where personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you. The specific retention period may vary depending on the type of data and our legal obligations.

How We Protect Your Data

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 personnel who need it for their role, using secure systems for storing records, and ensuring that our processors apply suitable security protections.

While we work hard to protect your information, no method of transmission or storage can be guaranteed as fully secure. However, we continually review and update our practices to reduce risks and maintain a high level of protection.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have certain rights in relation to the personal data that we hold about you. These rights apply to all Gardeners Holloway customers and service users within our operating area, subject to any limitations or exemptions in the law.

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

Right to rectification. You have the right to ask us to correct or complete personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you may have the right to request that we delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and we have no other lawful basis to retain it.

Right to restriction. You may have the right to request that we limit the way in which we use your personal data in certain situations, such as while we consider a challenge you have made to the accuracy of the data.

Right to object. You may have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests as our lawful basis. You also have an absolute right to object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing.

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

Where we rely on your consent to process 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, how we handle your personal data, or if you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, you can contact Gardeners Holloway using the contact details provided on our usual customer communications or on our website.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe that we are not processing your personal data in accordance with data protection law, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or services. Any changes will take effect when the updated version is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.