House Clearance Richmond Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how House Clearance Richmond collects, uses, stores and shares personal data when providing house clearance and related services in the Richmond area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Policy applies to all House Clearance Richmond customers and prospective customers in our service area, as well as individuals who contact us or visit our website.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner. Please read this Policy carefully to understand how and why we use your information.

Who we are and how to contact us

House Clearance Richmond is the controller of the personal data we collect and process in connection with our services. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the contact details published on our website or any written communication we send you.

What personal data we collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you use. This may include:

Identification and contact details: name, address, property address, email address, telephone number, and any other contact information you provide.

Service and booking information: details of your enquiry, requested house clearance services, access information for the property, preferred dates and times, inventory notes, and instructions or comments you provide in relation to the service.

Billing and payment information: billing address, payment method details such as partial card information provided to us over the phone or via invoice, payment status, and transaction records. If you pay via a third-party payment provider, we may receive limited payment confirmation data from that provider.

Communication data: records of correspondence with you, including emails, messages, call notes, and any feedback or complaints you submit.

Website usage data: information about how you use our website, such as pages visited, time and date of access, and general technical information about your device and browser. This data is typically collected using cookies or similar technologies and is usually aggregated or pseudonymised.

Operational and incident data: information related to the performance of the house clearance service, such as before and after notes or photographs of property contents where required for insurance, dispute resolution or proof of work, and records of incidents, accidents or claims.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data in several ways, including:

Directly from you: when you contact us by phone, email, contact form, or in person; when you request a quote; when you make a booking; when you provide instructions to our staff; or when you provide feedback or submit a complaint.

From third parties: where someone else arranges services on your behalf, such as a family member, landlord, letting agent, estate agent, solicitor, executor, or other professional representative. In such cases, we assume that the person providing your details is authorised to do so.

Automatically: when you visit our website, certain technical and usage data may be collected automatically through cookies or similar technologies.

Lawful basis for processing your data

We only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract: to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, and to perform our contract with you. This includes providing quotes, managing bookings, delivering house clearance services, sending service confirmations, and handling payments.

Legal obligation: to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including tax, accounting, and insurance obligations, health and safety rules, and the handling of legal claims or enforcement requests.

Legitimate interests: to pursue our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This includes managing and improving our services, responding to enquiries, maintaining business records, securing our systems, preventing fraud, and defending legal claims.

Consent: where required by law, for example for certain types of direct marketing or optional cookies. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us using the details in this Policy or by using any unsubscribe option that we provide.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide and manage our services: processing enquiries and quote requests, confirming bookings, planning and delivering house clearance services, coordinating with you and any third parties involved, and handling follow-up requests.

To manage payments and billing: issuing invoices, processing payments and refunds, and keeping necessary financial records.

To communicate with you: responding to your enquiries, sending booking confirmations and reminders, updating you about changes to services, and handling feedback, complaints or disputes.

To operate and improve our business: monitoring the performance of our services, training staff, reviewing and improving our processes, and maintaining accurate internal records.

To ensure safety and compliance: meeting our legal, regulatory and insurance obligations, handling incidents or claims, and protecting our staff, customers and property.

Data retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

In particular, we generally retain:

Service and booking records: for the duration of the relationship and for up to seven years afterwards, in line with typical limitation periods and accounting requirements.

Invoices and payment records: for at least six years to meet tax and financial record-keeping obligations.

Correspondence and complaints: for as long as needed to resolve the issue and for a reasonable period afterwards in case of further queries or legal claims.

Website usage data: for shorter periods that allow us to analyse trends and improve our website. Where possible, this data is aggregated or anonymised.

When data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

Data processors and sharing your information

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties who act as our processors and who provide services that support our business. These may include:

IT and hosting providers who host our website, email or data storage systems.

Payment processing providers and banks that facilitate payments and refunds.

Accountants or professional advisers who support our financial and legal obligations.

Customer management or scheduling tools that help us manage bookings and customer communications.

Where we engage processors, they are only allowed to process your personal data on our written instructions, must keep it secure, and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

We may also share personal data with other controllers in limited situations, such as:

With landlords, letting agents, estate agents, solicitors, executors or other parties directly involved in arranging or paying for the service, where reasonably necessary to carry out the house clearance.

With insurers, legal advisers, regulators or law enforcement where required by law or necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

International transfers

Where we use service providers located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data, such as using countries that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection or putting in place standard contractual clauses approved by the relevant authorities.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these include:

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we use it.

Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

Right to erasure: you can ask us to delete your personal data where there is no good reason for us to keep it, for example where you withdraw consent and there is no other lawful basis for processing.

Right to restriction: you can ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example while we verify its accuracy or our reasons for processing it.

Right to data portability: in some cases, you can ask us to provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to transmit it to another controller.

Right to object: you can object to our processing where we rely on legitimate interests, particularly in relation to direct marketing, and we will stop processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue.

Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdrew consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details on our website. We may need to confirm your identity before responding to your request.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office or with the data protection authority in the country where you live or work.

Security of your data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage. These measures include access controls, secure storage, staff training, and regular review of our procedures. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system can be completely secure.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, how we process personal data, or legal requirements. Any updated version will be published on our website and will apply from the date of publication. We recommend that you review this Policy periodically to stay informed about how we use your personal data.