Privacy Policy - Lambeth Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Lambeth Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data when providing carpet cleaning and related services. It applies to all Lambeth Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including individuals who request quotes, make bookings, receive services, or otherwise interact with us in connection with our cleaning work.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way, in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy should be read carefully so you understand how your information is managed and what rights you have.

1. Who We Are

Lambeth Carpet Cleaners provides domestic and commercial carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, stain treatment, and related cleaning services. In order to deliver our services efficiently, we may need to collect and process some personal information about customers, prospective customers, property occupants, and authorised representatives.

We only collect information that is relevant and necessary for the purposes described in this policy. We aim to keep all personal data accurate, secure, and used only for legitimate business and legal purposes.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity information such as your name, title, and any business or household name you provide.
Contact details such as address, phone number, and email address.
Service details including property access notes, cleaning preferences, service history, and information relevant to the work requested.
Payment-related information such as transaction records, billing details, and payment confirmation.
Communication records including emails, messages, complaints, reviews, and booking notes.
Technical information if you visit our digital services, such as device type, browser data, or usage information collected through standard analytics or security tools.
Special category data only where necessary and where you have provided it, for example if access arrangements reveal health or mobility considerations that are essential for service delivery.

We do not intentionally collect more information than is necessary. If you choose not to provide certain information, we may be unable to offer some services or respond fully to your request.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotes and respond to enquiries.
To arrange and deliver cleaning services.
To manage appointments, rescheduling, and cancellations.
To process payments and handle invoices.
To communicate with customers about service details or follow-up matters.
To maintain records of work completed and customer preferences.
To deal with complaints, disputes, or customer support issues.
To comply with legal, accounting, insurance, or regulatory obligations.
To improve service quality, security, and operational efficiency.

We will only use your personal data in ways that are compatible with the reasons it was collected, unless we have a valid legal basis to do otherwise.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each use of your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform our contract with you. This includes quotations, booking arrangements, and the delivery of cleaning services.

Legal Obligation

We may process data where required to comply with legal obligations, such as accounting, tax, record-keeping, fraud prevention, or responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. This can include service administration, quality control, customer communication, security, and internal record-keeping.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where you choose to provide information that is not strictly necessary or where specific marketing-related permissions are required. You may withdraw consent at any time where consent is the basis for processing.

Vital Interests

In rare cases, we may process data to protect someone’s vital interests, for example if immediate action is necessary to protect health or safety.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, and for any additional period required by law or legitimate business needs. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason for holding it.

Customer and booking records are generally kept for the duration of the customer relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax records may be retained for the period required by applicable UK law.
Correspondence and complaint records may be retained for longer where needed to resolve disputes, maintain service history, or defend legal claims.
Technical or security logs are retained only for as long as needed for security, troubleshooting, or audit purposes.

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

6. Processors and Data Sharing

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors only handle data under our instructions and are required to protect it appropriately. Examples may include:

Payment service providers that process transactions.
Accounting or bookkeeping services used for financial administration.
IT, hosting, and software providers that support record management and communications.
Customer relationship or scheduling tools used to organise bookings.
Professional advisers such as insurers, auditors, or legal advisers where necessary.

We may also disclose data where required by law, where necessary to protect our rights or property, or where a customer has authorised us to share information with another person involved in the service.

We do not sell your personal data.

7. International Transfers

Where a processor or system provider stores or accesses data outside the United Kingdom, we will take appropriate safeguards to ensure your personal data remains protected to the standard required by data protection law. These safeguards may include approved contractual protections or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited staff access, and careful management of service records.

Although we work to protect your information, no system can be guaranteed fully secure. If a data incident occurs, we will assess it and take appropriate action in accordance with our legal obligations.

9. Your Rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights under UK data protection law. These 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 processing in certain situations.
Right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability – to receive certain data in a portable format where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent – where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

We may need to verify your identity before responding to a rights request. Some rights may not apply in every situation, and legal exceptions may restrict what we can do in certain cases.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are directed to adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a household service and provided by an adult customer or authorised representative. If we become aware that we have collected data inappropriately, we will take steps to delete it where required.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal duties, or data protection practices. The latest version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review it periodically so they remain informed about how personal data is handled.

12. Summary of Key Points

We collect only the personal data needed to provide and manage our services.
We process data on lawful bases including contract, legal obligation, legitimate interests, and, where applicable, consent.
We keep data only as long as necessary and delete it securely when no longer required.
We may use trusted processors for payments, administration, IT, and related services.
You have rights over your personal data, including access, correction, deletion, and objection.

By using Lambeth Carpet Cleaners’ services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws.