Privacy Policy - North End Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how North End Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all North End Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and individuals who contact us on behalf of a household, business, or property. 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.

1. Who We Are

North End Carpet Cleaners provides carpet cleaning and associated cleaning services for homes and businesses. In this Privacy Policy, references to “we,” “us,” and “our” mean North End Carpet Cleaners acting as a data controller for the personal data we collect and use in connection with our services.

We only collect and process personal information that is necessary for legitimate business purposes, service delivery, legal compliance, and customer support. We take data protection seriously and aim to keep personal information secure and up to date.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal data:

Identity data such as your name, title, and any relevant business or household contact details.
Contact data such as your address, email address, telephone number, and preferred communication method.
Service data such as service instructions, property access notes, cleaning preferences, appointment details, and any information needed to carry out the work safely and effectively.
Transaction data such as invoice details, payment status, and records of services purchased.
Communication data such as messages, complaints, queries, feedback, and records of correspondence.
Technical data where applicable, such as basic device or usage information if you interact with us through electronic communications.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you provide it voluntarily, for example if information is needed to accommodate a vulnerability, access requirement, or safety concern. Where such data is processed, we do so only with an appropriate legal basis and suitable safeguards.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, book appointments, and deliver cleaning services.
To manage customer accounts, records, and service history.
To communicate about schedules, service updates, changes, or issues affecting your booking.
To respond to enquiries, complaints, and requests for support.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
To improve service quality, training, and customer experience.
To comply with legal, tax, accounting, insurance, and regulatory obligations.
To protect our business, staff, customers, and property from fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity.

We will only use your information for the purposes stated above or for closely related purposes that you would reasonably expect.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. We rely on the following bases:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes taking bookings, delivering cleaning services, managing appointments, and processing payments.

Legal Obligation

We may process personal data to comply with legal requirements, including tax records, accounting rules, insurance requirements, and lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests and those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include managing customer relationships, maintaining service records, preventing fraud, improving services, and protecting our business operations.

Consent

Where required by law, we will rely on your consent, for example for certain optional communications or the handling of specific sensitive information. If consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

We do not rely on consent where another lawful basis is more appropriate.

5. Sharing Personal Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as processors on our behalf. These parties are only permitted to process personal data in accordance with our instructions and applicable law.

Examples of processors may include:

Payment service providers that handle card or electronic payments.
Booking or scheduling tools used to organise appointments and service delivery.
Accounting and bookkeeping services that help manage invoices, payments, and tax records.
IT and cloud storage providers that host email, documents, customer records, or operational systems.
Customer communication providers that assist with sending appointment confirmations or service messages.

We may also share personal data with independent controllers where necessary, such as insurers, professional advisers, or public authorities, but only when required by law, for legitimate business purposes, or with your direction.

We do not sell personal data. Where data is transferred to service providers outside the UK or EEA, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as adequacy regulations or approved contractual protections.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including for legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. The retention period will depend on the type of data and the purpose of processing.

Customer service and booking records are generally retained for as long as needed to manage the relationship and resolve queries.
Invoices and financial records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Complaint or dispute records may be kept longer where necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Communications may be retained for a reasonable period to support service continuity and customer care.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

7. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access restrictions, secure storage, staff awareness, password protections, and limited retention practices.

Although we take reasonable steps to protect information, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will assess the risk and, where required, notify the relevant supervisory authority and affected individuals in line with legal obligations.

8. Your Rights Under GDPR

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

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 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, including direct marketing where applicable.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.
Right to withdraw consent – where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal limitations or exemptions. We will explain any refusal or restriction where applicable.

9. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where necessary in connection with a customer’s household or property arrangement. If we become aware that we have collected data inappropriately, we will take steps to delete or anonymise it where appropriate.

10. 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 protection practices. Any updates will take effect when published, and we encourage customers to review the policy periodically.

11. Summary of Key Commitments

North End Carpet Cleaners will only collect personal data that is necessary, use it for clear and lawful purposes, keep it no longer than needed, and share it only with trusted processors or where legally required. We respect your rights and aim to handle all personal information with care, confidentiality, and transparency.

This Privacy Policy applies to all North End Carpet Cleaners customers in the area.