Privacy Policy

1. Information we may collect

We may collect and use information such as:

• your name;
• email address;
• phone number;
• preferred contact method;
• messages, enquiries and job details;
• address and postcode;
• photos or uploads you provide through the website or messages;
• photos of work carried out;
• quote, invoice, receipt and payment records;
• records of unpaid invoices or late payments;
• access, parking, alarm/security or pet-related notes where needed for a job;
• limited health, disability, accessibility or personal circumstance information where you choose to provide it and it is relevant to arranging or carrying out our services;
• for commercial clients, details of individual contacts such as names, work contact details, job roles, site instructions or access notes.

We may collect this information through our website, contact form, email, phone, text message, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, in person, our invoice system, or other normal business communications.

Some information is needed so we can respond to enquiries, prepare quotes, arrange visits, carry out work, send invoices or keep legal and tax records. If you do not provide information we reasonably need, we may not be able to provide our services.

2. How we use your information

We use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries;
• arrange quotes, visits and bookings;
• provide gardening services;
• manage regular or recurring work;
• send appointment reminders, visit updates, weather-delay messages or service updates;
• create quotes, estimates, invoices, receipts and payment records;
• keep business, tax and accounting records;
• deal with unpaid invoices or late payments;
• handle complaints, disputes, alleged damage, insurance matters or legal issues;
• keep work records and check the quality of work carried out;
• ask for reviews or testimonials;
• contact existing customers about relevant services, reminders or offers where permitted by law;
• manage and protect our website, systems and business.

We only collect information that is reasonably needed for these purposes.

3. Lawful basis for using your information

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using personal information.

The lawful bases we rely on are:

• Contract, or steps before entering into a contract — for responding to enquiries, preparing quotes or estimates, arranging visits, bookings and providing gardening services.
• Contract and/or legitimate interests — for sending appointment reminders, visit updates, weather-delay messages and service updates.
• Contract and legal obligation — for creating invoices, receipts, payment records and managing payments.
• Legal obligation — for keeping tax, accounting and business records.
• Legitimate interests — for keeping work records, photos, complaint records, dispute records, late-payment records or evidence of work carried out.
• Legitimate interests — for protecting our business, dealing with complaints, unpaid invoices, insurance matters or legal issues.
• Legitimate interests, where permitted by law — for contacting existing customers about similar gardening services, reminders, offers or seasonal updates.
• Legitimate interests — for using photos of work for portfolio, website, social media or marketing purposes, balanced against customer privacy and the right to object.
• Explicit consent, where special category data is involved — for using limited health, disability, accessibility or personal circumstance information where you choose to provide it and it is relevant to providing the service safely or appropriately.

Our legitimate interests include running and promoting our gardening business, keeping accurate records, protecting our legal position, improving our services, and showing examples of our work. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether our business need is balanced against your privacy rights and freedoms.

4. Photos of work

We may take or use photos of work for:

• work records;
• quality control;
• customer satisfaction;
• dealing with complaints or disputes;
• protecting our legal position;
• portfolio, website, social media or other marketing use.

We do not intentionally photograph people as part of our work. We will try to avoid showing faces, children, house numbers, street names, car number plates, personal belongings, or anything that clearly identifies a customer or property.

Photos may be lightly edited for presentation purposes, such as cropping, brightness, contrast, sharpening or removing minor visual distractions. We will not intentionally misrepresent the work carried out.

If you do not want photos of work at your property to be used publicly, or you would like a photo removed, please contact us.

5. Marketing

We may contact existing customers with relevant gardening updates, reminders, offers or seasonal messages about our own similar services, where permitted by law.

Where we rely on the “soft opt-in” for existing customers, we will only contact you about our own similar gardening services, and you will be given a clear way to opt out.

You can opt out of marketing at any time by:

• replying to a message;
• contacting us through the website contact form;
• emailing info@serenitygardens.uk.

If you object to direct marketing, we will stop using your details for that purpose.

We may also ask customers for reviews or testimonials. Where we use testimonials publicly, we will usually anonymise them unless you have clearly agreed otherwise.

6. Sensitive information

Sometimes a customer may choose to tell us about health, disability, accessibility or personal circumstances, for example if this affects access, communication, safety, timing or how we provide the service.

We only use this information where it is relevant to arranging or carrying out the service, making reasonable adjustments, or providing the service safely and appropriately.

Where this information is special category data, we rely on your explicit consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time, but this will not affect how we used the information before consent was withdrawn.

We do not use health, disability, accessibility or personal circumstance information for marketing.

7. Who we may share information with

We may share information where reasonably necessary with:

• trusted subcontractors or helpers who need the information to carry out work;
• our website hosting and email provider, such as IONOS;
• our banking or payment providers;
• our accountant or bookkeeper;
• HMRC or tax authorities where required;
• our insurance provider if there is a claim or dispute;
• solicitors or legal advisers if there is a legal issue.

Any subcontractors or helpers are only given the information they need for the agreed work and are expected to keep customer information confidential.

Some contact or interaction may also happen through third-party platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Google Reviews, email providers or website services. Those platforms may process personal information under their own privacy policies.

8. Where information is stored

Customer and job information may be stored in:

• phone contacts;
• text/SMS messages;
• WhatsApp;
• email inboxes;
• our Serenity app/invoice system;
• IONOS webspace or database systems.

Some third-party providers may process or store information outside the UK. Where this happens, we aim to use providers that apply appropriate safeguards, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to Standard Contractual Clauses, or other UK-approved transfer safeguards where required.

9. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary.

This may include keeping records for:

• providing services;
• repeat or regular work;
• quotes, invoices, receipts and payment history;
• tax and accounting requirements;
• complaints, disputes, insurance or legal protection;
• quality control and work records.

Invoices, payment records and tax/accounting records will usually be kept for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year, or longer where reasonably needed for legal, tax, accounting, insurance or dispute purposes.

Other information is reviewed periodically and deleted when it is no longer needed.

Access codes or sensitive access details, if ever provided, will only be kept for as long as needed and deleted or updated when no longer required.

10. Cookies and website information

At launch, our website does not use advertising pixels or behavioural tracking cookies.

We may use basic website performance, security or search visibility tools, such as Google Search Console and IONOS built-in website statistics if available. Our website or hosting provider may also collect basic technical information such as IP addresses, browser type, device information and website usage logs.

If we later add non-essential cookies, advertising tracking, analytics tools or similar technology, we will update this notice and use cookie consent where required.

11. Children’s information

We do not knowingly collect children’s personal information.

We also try to avoid including children in work photos or marketing images. If a child is accidentally captured in a photo, we will avoid using that image publicly unless it is removed, blurred or we have suitable permission.

12. Keeping information secure

We take reasonable steps to keep personal information safe and to prevent it being lost, misused, accessed without permission or shared unnecessarily.

We limit access to personal information to where it is needed for the business, the work being carried out, or legal/accounting reasons.

13. Your rights

You can contact us to ask about personal information we hold about you.

You may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of your information;
• ask us to correct inaccurate information;
• ask us to delete information where appropriate;
• ask us to restrict how we use your information;
• ask us to transfer your information to another service provider where this right applies and it is technically feasible;
• object to direct marketing;
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests, where this right applies;
• withdraw consent where we rely on consent;
• ask us to remove publicly used photos where reasonably possible.

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect how we used the information before consent was withdrawn.

You can object to your information being used for direct marketing at any time.

To make a request, contact us through the website contact form or email info@serenitygardens.uk.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data protection regulator.

ICO website: www.ico.org.uk
ICO phone: 0303 123 1113

15. Changes to this notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The latest version will be available on our website.