Privacy Policy - Lea Bridge Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Lea Bridge Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data relating to its customers in the Lea Bridge area. It applies to all Lea Bridge Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including anyone who requests a quote, books a service, receives a cleaning visit, or otherwise communicates with us in connection with our carpet cleaning services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy sets out what data we collect, why we collect it, the legal bases we rely on, how long we keep data, who may process it on our behalf, and the rights available to you.

1. Who We Are

Lea Bridge Carpet Cleaners provides professional carpet cleaning and related cleaning services to customers in the Lea Bridge area. In this policy, references to “we”, “us”, and “our” mean Lea Bridge Carpet Cleaners acting as the data controller for the personal data described below.

As a data controller, we decide how and why your personal data is processed. We take this responsibility seriously and aim to ensure that any personal information entrusted to us is used only for legitimate business purposes and protected with appropriate safeguards.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the data necessary to provide our services effectively, manage our business, and comply with legal obligations. The type of information we may collect includes:

Identity details such as your name.
Contact details such as your address, telephone number, and email address.
Service information such as property details, carpet type, cleaning requirements, booking history, and notes relevant to carrying out the service.
Payment-related information such as transaction records and billing information, where applicable.
Communication records including messages, queries, complaints, feedback, and notes of conversations.
Technical and usage data if you interact with us through digital channels, such as device information, basic logs, or similar operational data.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you choose to provide it. Special category data includes information about health, religion, ethnicity, political opinions, or similar sensitive data. If such information is ever relevant to a service request, we will process it only where a lawful basis exists and additional safeguards are in place.

3. How We Collect Your Data

We may collect your data directly from you when you:

request a quotation or consultation,
make a booking,
communicate with us by phone, email, message, or in person,
provide access details or service instructions,
submit feedback or a complaint, or
make a payment or request an invoice.

We may also receive limited personal data from third parties where appropriate, for example from property managers, landlords, letting agents, or referral partners who arrange services on your behalf. In such cases, we expect the third party to have a lawful basis for sharing the data with us.

4. Why We Use Your Data and Our Lawful Basis

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. We rely on the following legal bases depending on the purpose of the processing:

a. Performance of a contract

We process data that is necessary to provide the services you have requested, such as preparing quotes, confirming bookings, carrying out cleaning work, issuing receipts, or handling service-related communications. This is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to you.

b. Legitimate interests

We may process certain data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing appointments, preventing fraud, maintaining records, improving our services, responding to enquiries, and ensuring the smooth operation of the business. We always consider whether the processing is proportionate and whether your privacy impact is minimal.

c. Legal obligation

We may process and retain certain records to comply with tax, accounting, insurance, or other legal obligations. This may include invoicing and transaction records, or information needed for dispute resolution and regulatory compliance.

d. Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example if we wish to use your information for a purpose that is not covered by another lawful basis. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use personal data to:

provide carpet cleaning and related services,
prepare quotes and manage bookings,
communicate with you about your service,
keep internal records and manage accounts,
respond to questions, complaints, or requests,
improve our services and customer experience,
meet legal, tax, and regulatory requirements, and
protect our business, staff, and customers.

We do not use your data for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and provide you with the required information.

6. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as processors on our behalf. These processors only handle data according to our instructions and must keep it secure and confidential. Examples may include:

IT and hosting providers that store or support our business systems,
payment service providers that process card or electronic payments,
accounting and bookkeeping providers that assist with financial administration,
communication service providers that help with email, message, or call handling, and
professional advisers such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers where necessary.

We may also disclose data where required by law, court order, or government authority, or to protect our rights, property, staff, or customers. Where possible and lawful, we will limit the amount of information shared to what is necessary.

7. International Transfers

If any processor stores or accesses data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms permitted by data protection law.

8. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this policy. The exact retention period depends on the type of data and the reason we hold it. In general:

quotation and booking information may be kept for a reasonable period to manage service history and follow-up enquiries,
invoice, payment, and accounting records are kept for the period required by tax and financial law,
customer correspondence may be retained for a period needed to resolve queries, complaints, or disputes, and
information no longer needed is securely deleted, anonymised, or archived where appropriate.

We regularly review data retention needs and do not keep personal information indefinitely unless there is a valid legal or business reason to do so.

9. Security of Your Data

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, confidentiality obligations, and data minimisation practices. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to protect your information using appropriate safeguards.

10. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights regarding your personal data. Subject to legal restrictions, these may include:

The right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
The right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
The right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
The right to restrict processing – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
The right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing where applicable.
The right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format, where the law requires it.
The right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

If you believe your rights have not been respected, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). We encourage you to raise concerns with us first so we can try to resolve the issue promptly and fairly.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are generally intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect children’s personal data unless it is necessary for a service arrangement made by a parent, guardian, or authorised adult. If we become aware that we have collected information from a child without appropriate authorisation, we will take steps to delete it where required.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our business practices, or the services we offer. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise brought into use. We encourage customers in the Lea Bridge area to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their data is handled.

13. Contact and Further Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us using the usual business communication channels available to customers. We will respond appropriately and in accordance with applicable data protection law.

Lea Bridge Carpet Cleaners is committed to respecting privacy, keeping information secure, and ensuring that all personal data is processed only for clear and lawful purposes. By using our services, you acknowledge that your information will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection requirements.