Privacy Policy - Old Coulsdon Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Old Coulsdon Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing services to customers in the Old Coulsdon area. It applies to all customers, prospective customers, and anyone who interacts with us in connection with carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, stain treatment, end-of-tenancy cleaning, and related services in the area. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, transparent, and secure manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Old Coulsdon Carpet Cleaners acts as the data controller for the personal information processed in the course of delivering our services. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used. We only collect and process data that is necessary for business, legal, and service-related purposes. We aim to keep all personal information accurate, relevant, and limited to what is needed.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process different categories of personal data depending on the service requested and how you interact with us. This may include:

Identity data such as your name and title;
Contact data such as address, email address, and telephone number;
Service data such as property details, cleaning requirements, access instructions, and appointment preferences;
Billing and payment data such as invoice details and payment confirmation information;
Communication data such as emails, messages, call notes, and complaints;
Technical data if you contact us electronically, including basic device and usage information where applicable;
Special category data only where you voluntarily provide it and it is necessary for a service request, for example if access or health-related considerations affect the cleaning arrangement. We do not seek this information unless it is needed.

We do not intentionally collect more data than is necessary. If you choose not to provide certain information, we may not be able to deliver the requested service or respond fully to your enquiry.

3. How We Collect Your Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you:

make an enquiry;
request a quotation or booking;
communicate with us by phone, email, or other means;
provide instructions before or during a visit;
make a payment or receive an invoice;
leave feedback or make a complaint.

We may also receive data from third parties where this is necessary to provide our services, such as letting agents, landlords, property managers, or family members arranging services on behalf of a customer. In such cases, those third parties should only share information lawfully and responsibly.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process personal data where we have a lawful basis under GDPR. The main lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This includes booking services, confirming appointments, providing cleaning services, issuing invoices, and managing customer requests.

Legal Obligation

We may process and retain certain records where needed to comply with legal duties, including tax, accounting, and record-keeping requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data for our legitimate business interests where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This may include managing appointments, improving service delivery, preventing fraud, responding to complaints, and maintaining business records. We always consider whether the processing is necessary and proportionate.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where you voluntarily provide additional information that is not strictly necessary for the service. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide and manage carpet cleaning and related services;
to schedule appointments and coordinate access to premises;
to prepare quotations, invoices, and payment records;
to communicate with customers about bookings and service updates;
to deal with complaints, queries, and service issues;
to maintain business and accounting records;
to improve our services and customer experience;
to comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
to protect our business, staff, and customers from fraud or misuse.

We do not use personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reasons for which it was collected unless we have a lawful basis to do so.

6. Data Retention

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

Customer and service records are generally retained for the period needed to manage the relationship and address after-service queries;
Financial and accounting records are retained for the period required by law and standard business practice;
Complaints and communication records may be retained for a reasonable period to support service quality and dispute resolution;
Consent-based information is kept only until consent is withdrawn or no longer needed.

When data is no longer required, we will securely delete, anonymise, or destroy it. We use a retention approach designed to ensure information is not kept longer than necessary.

7. Processors and Third Parties

We may use carefully selected third-party service providers, known as processors, to help us operate our business. These may include:

payment service providers;
accounting or bookkeeping services;
software providers for booking, scheduling, or record management;
IT and data storage providers;
communication service providers;
professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers.

Where we use processors, they are required to process personal data only on our instructions, keep it secure, and use it only for the services they provide to us. We do not sell personal data. We may also share data where required by law, to protect our rights, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

8. Security of Your Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited staff access, and reasonable procedures for handling information. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we work to maintain a level of protection appropriate to the risks involved.

9. International Transfers

Where any processor or system used by us stores or accesses personal data outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure that suitable safeguards are in place. These may include approved contractual protections or other lawful transfer mechanisms designed to keep your data protected to the required standard.

10. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. These may include:

Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
Right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
Right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances;
Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations;
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests;
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a portable format where applicable;
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent;
Right to complain – to raise concerns with the relevant supervisory authority.

These rights are not absolute and may apply only in certain circumstances. We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request. We aim to handle requests promptly and within the timescales required by law.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is provided by a parent, guardian, or authorised adult in connection with a service request and where necessary for arranging access or service delivery.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, business practices, or the way we process personal data. Any revised version will apply from the date it is issued. We encourage customers in the Old Coulsdon area to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their information is handled.

13. Summary of Our Commitment

Old Coulsdon Carpet Cleaners is committed to processing personal data responsibly, securely, and transparently. We collect only what is needed, use it for clear and lawful purposes, keep it only for as long as necessary, and respect your rights under data protection law. If you are a customer in the Old Coulsdon area, this policy applies to you whenever you use our services or interact with us in relation to them.