Privacy Policy

Gardeners Hayes Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Hayes collects, uses and protects personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers in the areas we serve. It is intended to meet the requirements of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable data protection laws. By using our gardening and related services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Hayes customers and prospective customers within our service area, including individuals who contact us to request a quote, make a booking, or otherwise interact with us in relation to our gardening and maintenance services. It applies whether you contact us online, by post or in person, and covers all personal data that we process in the course of providing or marketing our services.

Data Controller

For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Hayes is the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data and are responsible for ensuring that such processing complies with applicable law.

Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data about you:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, service address, and any other contact details you choose to provide.

Communication information, including the content of enquiries, quotations, service requests, feedback and any correspondence you send to us.

Service information, including details about the gardening or maintenance services you request or receive, property type and size, access instructions, and scheduling preferences.

Billing and payment information, such as records of payments made, amounts due and related accounting records. Card or bank details are only processed to the extent needed to complete a transaction, in line with the requirements of relevant payment providers.

Usage and interaction information, such as when and how you contact us, how you respond to our messages, and information you provide to us during conversations or visits.

Technical information, where applicable, such as device type, browser type and basic diagnostic data that may be generated when you use any of our online forms or digital tools.

How We Collect Your Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request information, a quotation or services, when you agree a contract for services, when we provide services at your property, or when you update or otherwise interact with us about your account or service needs.

We may also generate personal data ourselves, for example by creating records of the services provided, invoices issued and communication history. In some cases we may receive information about you from third parties, for example if you are introduced to us by another customer or by a business partner, or if you are not the owner but the occupier of a property where services are requested.

Lawful Bases for Processing

We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the context, we may rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract. We process your personal data to enter into and perform a contract with you, for example to provide gardening services, manage bookings, send confirmations and invoices, and handle queries related to the services.

Legal obligation. We process personal data where necessary to comply with legal obligations, such as record keeping, tax and accounting requirements, responding to lawful requests from authorities, and upholding your data protection rights.

Legitimate interests. We may process personal data for our legitimate interests, provided that your rights and freedoms are not overridden. This includes managing and improving our services, keeping records of past work for reference, planning schedules, preventing fraud or misuse, and communicating with you about existing or similar services that may be of interest to you.

Consent. In limited cases we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of optional marketing communications where consent is required by law. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

Purposes for Which We Use Personal Data

We may use your personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.

To set up and manage customer relationships and service bookings.

To deliver gardening and related services at the agreed location and time.

To issue invoices, process payments and maintain financial records.

To communicate with you about service arrangements, changes, cancellations or follow up visits.

To address complaints, handle disputes and provide customer support.

To plan and manage staff workloads, routes and schedules.

To maintain records of work carried out at particular properties for quality, safety and reference purposes.

To send service updates or information about similar services you already use, where permitted.

To comply with legal and regulatory requirements and respond to requests from public authorities.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or to comply with legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

In general, we will retain customer records and service history for a period that allows us to respond to queries about past work, to handle any legal claims and to comply with applicable limitation periods. Financial records such as invoices and payment records are kept for the period required by tax and accounting laws.

Where personal data is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, and we are not required by law to retain it, we will delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be used to identify you.

Data Processors and Sharing of Personal Data

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share your personal data with third parties where necessary for the operation of our business, for the performance of our contract with you or for compliance with legal obligations.

We may use third party service providers who act as data processors on our behalf. These may include providers of payment processing services, accounting or bookkeeping services, information technology and hosting services, communication tools and other professional advisers. These processors are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and are required to protect your data in line with data protection law.

We may also share your personal data with third parties where we are required to do so by law or where it is necessary to protect our rights, your rights or the rights of others. If we are involved in a business restructuring, sale or transfer of all or part of our activities, your personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction, in line with legal requirements.

International Transfers

Where we use service providers located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, or where data is otherwise transferred internationally, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws. This may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other approved mechanisms designed to ensure that your rights are protected.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limiting access to those who need it for their role, and appropriate training and procedures to ensure that personal data is handled carefully and confidentially.

Your Data Protection Rights

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

The right to access. You can request confirmation of whether we hold personal data about you and, if so, receive a copy of that data together with certain related information.

The right to rectification. You can ask us to correct or update inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you.

The right to erasure. In certain circumstances you can 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.

The right to restriction of processing. You can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain situations, for example while we are verifying the accuracy of data or assessing an objection.

The right to object. You can object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as the legal basis. You also have an absolute right to object to direct marketing at any time.

The right to data portability. In certain cases, you can request that we provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format, or ask that it be transmitted directly to another controller where technically feasible.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the usual contact details you have for Gardeners Hayes. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request and will respond within the time limits set by law.

Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, you should contact us in the first instance so that we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority in the United Kingdom if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or the services we offer. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we process your personal data.