House Clearance Chiswick Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how House Clearance Chiswick collects, uses, stores and protects the personal data of its customers and prospective customers. It applies to all individuals who request, use or enquire about our house clearance and related services in and around Chiswick and the surrounding area.

Who We Are

House Clearance Chiswick is a local service provider offering house clearance and related services to residential and commercial customers. For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, we are the data controller in respect of the personal data we collect and process about you.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different types of personal data depending on your relationship with us and how you contact us. This may include:

Identification and contact details such as your name, address, email address and telephone number.

Service and property details such as property type, access information, clearance requirements, photographs of items or rooms where these are provided to obtain a quotation, and any special instructions or notes relevant to the service.

Communication records such as emails, messages, call notes and other correspondence with you, including enquiries, quotations, bookings and feedback.

Billing and payment information such as invoice addresses, payment records, amounts paid and outstanding balances. We do not store full payment card details; where card payments are processed, these are handled securely by our payment processor.

Website and technical data such as basic usage information, device and browser details, and information provided through contact forms or quotation forms on our website, where applicable.

How We Collect Your Data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you contact us by telephone, email, online form or social media, when you request a quotation, when you book a clearance, or when you provide feedback. We may also receive data from third parties where you have asked them to contact us on your behalf, such as letting agents, landlords, solicitors, or family members arranging a clearance for you.

Lawful Bases For Processing

We only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis under UK GDPR. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contractual necessity: where processing is required to provide a quotation, to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform our contract with you for house clearance and related services.

Legal obligations: where we must process certain information to comply with laws, such as tax, accounting and waste disposal regulations, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests and these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This may include managing and improving our services, protecting our business, handling enquiries and complaints, recovering debts and maintaining records of completed work.

Consent: where required by law for certain types of marketing or optional communications, we rely on your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details in this policy or by following the unsubscribe instructions in the communication.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We may use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, respond to enquiries and arrange property visits.

To plan and perform house clearance and related services at your property.

To communicate with you about your booking, including confirmations, updates, and any changes to dates or times.

To issue invoices, process payments and manage our accounts and records.

To manage customer relationships, handle feedback, resolve complaints and improve our services.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including record-keeping and waste disposal documentation where required.

To protect our business, for example in relation to fraud prevention, debt recovery or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

With your consent where applicable, to send you information about our services that may be of interest to you.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share your data with trusted third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

These third parties may act as data processors, processing personal data on our behalf and only in accordance with our instructions. They may include:

IT and hosting providers that maintain our email, website, and data storage systems.

Payment service providers that securely process card and electronic payments.

Waste and recycling partners where needed to lawfully dispose of items and materials collected during a clearance.

Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers where necessary for our business operations and compliance.

Debt collection or credit control partners where required to recover unpaid amounts.

We may also share personal data with public or regulatory authorities, law enforcement agencies or courts where we are legally required to do so or where this is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Whenever we use processors, we ensure that appropriate contractual and security measures are in place to protect your data in line with GDPR requirements.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.

In most cases, customer and service records, including invoices and related correspondence, will be retained for up to six years from the end of the financial year in which the service was provided, in line with legal and tax requirements.

Enquiry-only data, where no service is ultimately provided, may be retained for a shorter period, typically up to two years, so we can manage follow-up enquiries, understand demand for our services and handle any issues that arise.

Data held solely for marketing purposes will be retained until you withdraw your consent or object to such processing, or until we determine that it is no longer necessary.

We periodically review the personal data we hold and securely delete or anonymise information that is no longer required.

International Transfers

Our core operations and data storage are based in the United Kingdom. If in future any part of our service involves transferring personal data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses or equivalent measures required by data protection law.

Data Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect your information from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.

These measures may include secure storage, access controls, password protection, restricted access to personal data only for those who need it for their role, and regular review of our security practices. While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your data, no system can be completely secure, and you acknowledge that the security of data transmitted over the internet cannot be guaranteed.

Your Data Protection Rights

As an individual whose personal data we process, you have a number of rights under UK GDPR, subject to certain conditions and exemptions:

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

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

Right to erasure: in some circumstances, you can request that we delete your personal data.

Right to restriction: you can ask us to restrict the processing of your data in certain situations, for example while we are dealing with a correction request.

Right to data portability: where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may request that we provide your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or transfer it to another controller where feasible.

Right to object: you can object to our processing where we rely on legitimate interests, including profiling, and you can object at any time to the use of your data for direct marketing.

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

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details set out in this Privacy Policy. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, we encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office in the United Kingdom.

Scope Of This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all customers and prospective customers of House Clearance Chiswick who request or receive our services in Chiswick and the surrounding area, whether you contact us directly or through a third party acting on your behalf.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements or how we process personal data. Any changes will take effect when the updated policy is made available. You should review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.