Privacy Policy - Gardeners Fortis Green

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Fortis Green collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects personal data when providing gardening services to customers in the Fortis Green area. It applies to all Gardeners Fortis Green customers in the area, including people who request quotes, book services, receive maintenance visits, or otherwise interact with our team. We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, transparent, and secure manner in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are and What This Policy Covers

Gardeners Fortis Green provides gardening-related services such as garden maintenance, planting, hedge care, lawn care, seasonal tidy-ups, and similar outdoor services. In order to carry out these services effectively, we may need to collect and process personal information about customers, property occupiers, and in some cases suppliers or other individuals connected with a booking.

This Privacy Policy applies when you:

request a quotation or service;
book or receive gardening work;
communicate with us by phone, email, message, or in person;
make a payment or receive an invoice;
provide feedback, raise a concern, or make a complaint.

We only process data that is relevant to delivering our services and operating our business responsibly. We do not collect more information than is necessary for the purposes described below.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us. This may include:

Basic identity and contact details

Name;
Address and service location;
Email address;
Telephone number;
Preferred communication method.

Service and property information

Details of the gardening services requested or provided;
Property access notes and scheduling preferences;
Garden condition notes, work instructions, and service history;
Photos taken for quotation, planning, or proof of completed work where appropriate.

Financial and administrative information

Invoice details;
Payment status and transaction records;
Records of correspondence relating to quotes, bookings, or complaints.

Technical and usage data

If you contact us through digital channels, we may receive limited technical information such as device type or message metadata. We do not use this information to create unnecessary profiles about customers. Any digital data is used only to manage communication, maintain records, or improve service administration.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you have provided it for a specific lawful reason, or where we are legally required to process it.

3. How We Use Your Data

Gardeners Fortis Green uses personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, schedule appointments, and deliver gardening services;
To manage customer accounts, service records, and invoices;
To communicate with you about appointments, changes, and service updates;
To respond to questions, complaints, or requests;
To maintain internal business records and quality control;
To meet legal, regulatory, tax, and accounting obligations;
To protect our business, staff, customers, and property from fraud, misuse, or security risks.

We may also use information in aggregated or anonymised form for internal reporting and service improvement. Where data has been anonymised so that it can no longer identify an individual, it is no longer personal data under GDPR.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the purpose, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Performance of a contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes, arranging and delivering services, issuing invoices, and managing bookings.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include record-keeping, service management, responding to queries, preventing fraud, and improving operational efficiency. We always consider whether processing is proportionate and relevant.

Legal obligation

We may need to retain and process certain records to comply with tax law, accounting rules, insurance requirements, health and safety obligations, or other legal duties.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example if we ask to use specific information or images for a purpose that is not covered by another lawful basis. Where consent is used, it will be informed, specific, and freely given, and you may withdraw it at any time.

We do not sell personal data. We use it only for legitimate service, administrative, and legal purposes connected with Gardeners Fortis Green.

5. Retention of Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the reason for processing.

Customer and service records may be retained for as long as the business relationship continues and for a reasonable period afterwards;
Financial and accounting records are usually kept for the period required by law;
Correspondence and complaint records may be held for a period needed to resolve issues and manage service history;
Where data is no longer needed, it is securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise disposed of in a safe manner.

We review retention regularly to ensure that personal data is not kept longer than necessary. If data is retained for legal reasons, access is limited to the extent required for compliance.

6. Processors and Data Sharing

Gardeners Fortis Green may share personal data with trusted third-party service providers who act as processors on our behalf. These providers only process data according to our instructions and under appropriate contractual safeguards. Typical processors may include:

IT and cloud storage providers;
Accounting and invoicing software providers;
Payment processing services;
Communication or scheduling platforms;
Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers, where necessary.

We may also disclose data where required by law, court order, regulator request, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of our business, staff, or customers.

Where third-party processors are used, we take reasonable steps to ensure they provide appropriate security, confidentiality, and GDPR-compliant handling of data. We do not allow processors to use personal data for their own unrelated purposes.

7. International Transfers

If any processor stores or accesses personal data outside the UK, we ensure that suitable safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other approved transfer mechanisms designed to protect your data to a standard equivalent to UK GDPR requirements.

8. Data Security

We apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, alteration, or disclosure. These may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, and limiting access to people who need the information to perform their duties.

Although no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to reduce risk and to handle information responsibly. If a data incident occurs that may affect your rights or freedoms, we will assess the situation and take appropriate action in line with legal obligations.

9. Your Rights Under GDPR

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

Right of access – to request a copy of the data we hold about you;
Right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
Right to erasure – to ask us to delete your data in certain situations;
Right to restriction – to request limited use of your data in certain cases;
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests;
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable;
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

You also have the right to raise concerns with the relevant data protection authority if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully. We encourage you to raise concerns promptly so that we can address them internally where possible.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are generally directed to adults arranging gardening services for properties. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidentally provided by an adult in the course of arranging or receiving a service. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without an appropriate lawful basis, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it becomes current. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their information is used.

12. Fair Processing Commitment

Gardeners Fortis Green is committed to fair processing and to using personal information only for clear and legitimate purposes. We aim to be transparent about what we collect, why we need it, and how long we keep it. Our approach is based on data minimisation, purpose limitation, and respect for customer privacy.

By choosing our services, you acknowledge that we may process your data in line with this policy and the legal grounds described above. We will always aim to handle your information in a way that is proportionate, necessary, and respectful of your rights.