House Clearance Highbury Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how House Clearance Highbury collects, uses, stores, and protects the personal data of all customers in the Highbury area. It also explains your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. By contacting us, requesting a quote, or using our house clearance services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Who We Are

House Clearance Highbury is a house clearance service operating in the Highbury area. For the purposes of data protection laws, we act as the data controller when we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data in connection with our services.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all House Clearance Highbury customers and prospective customers in the Highbury area, including individuals who enquire about our services, request quotations, or engage us to perform house clearance work at residential or commercial properties.

Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

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

Service and contract details, such as details of the services you request, property access information, job notes, quotations, invoices, and records of communications relating to your bookings.

Payment information, such as payment method, partial card details as provided by payment processors, payment confirmations, and billing history. We do not store full card details when payments are processed via third-party providers.

Communication data, such as emails, text messages, phone call notes, and other correspondence relating to enquiries, bookings, complaints, and feedback.

Technical and usage data where applicable, such as basic information about how you contact us online, including the date and time of contact, device type, and pages visited, where this is collected by our website or communication systems.

How We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data from you in several ways, including:

Directly from you when you contact us by phone, email, online form, or in person.

When you request a quotation or booking and provide details about the property and clearance requirements.

During the delivery of our services when we record job details, access instructions, and follow-up communications.

From payment processors when you make payments for our services and they share confirmation information with us.

From limited publicly available sources where necessary to verify addresses or business details related to service delivery.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process your personal data when we have a valid legal basis under data protection laws. The lawful bases we rely upon include:

Performance of a contract: To take steps at your request before entering into a contract and to perform our contract with you, such as providing quotations, managing bookings, and delivering house clearance services.

Legal obligations: To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including record keeping for tax and accounting purposes, waste transfer documentation, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate interests: To pursue our legitimate interests in operating and improving our business, such as managing customer relationships, handling enquiries and complaints, scheduling jobs efficiently, preventing fraud, and ensuring the security of our operations. We balance these interests against your rights and reasonable expectations.

Consent: In some limited circumstances, we may rely on your consent, for example if you explicitly ask to receive certain types of marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

To respond to your enquiries, provide quotations, and advise on suitable services for your property in the Highbury area.

To set up, manage, and fulfil bookings, including arranging access to properties, coordinating clearance teams, and providing customer support during and after the service.

To process payments, send invoices, receipts, and reminders, and maintain accurate financial and transaction records.

To manage our relationship with you, including handling feedback, resolving complaints, and communicating important information about your service.

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including waste disposal rules, tax and accounting laws, and maintaining appropriate business records.

To improve and develop our services, monitor service quality, and train staff, using aggregated and anonymised information wherever possible.

Data Sharing and Processors

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described above. These third parties act as data processors or independent controllers depending on their role. They may include:

Payment service providers that process card or electronic payments on our behalf.

Accountants or bookkeeping service providers who assist us with financial records and tax compliance.

IT and communication service providers that host our email, booking, or data storage systems and help ensure their security and availability.

Waste management and recycling partners where we need to record or evidence lawful disposal of items cleared from your property.

Professional advisers such as insurance providers or legal advisers where necessary to manage claims, disputes, or regulatory matters.

Regulators, law enforcement agencies, or public authorities when we are required to do so by law or in order to protect our rights, customers, or the public.

Whenever we use data processors, we ensure they are bound by contractual obligations to keep your data secure, use it only in accordance with our instructions, and comply with applicable data protection laws.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. The specific retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and our legal obligations, but in general:

Service and contract records, including invoices and basic contact details, are retained for up to seven years to meet tax, accounting, and regulatory requirements.

Enquiry records and quotations that do not lead to a booking may be retained for up to two years to help us respond to follow-up enquiries and manage our business records.

Complaint and dispute records may be kept for longer if required to manage or defend potential legal claims.

Where data is no longer needed, it will be securely deleted, anonymised, or destroyed in accordance with our data retention and disposal procedures.

International Transfers

In some cases, our service providers may store or process your data outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. Where this occurs, we take appropriate steps to ensure that your personal data remains adequately protected, such as using standard contractual clauses or other safeguards required by data protection law.

Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or disclosure. These measures include limiting access to personal data to staff and service providers who need it for their role, using secure systems for storing and transmitting data, and maintaining internal policies on confidentiality and data protection.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, you may have the right to:

Access your personal data and receive a copy of the information we hold about you.

Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

Request erasure of your personal data where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to keep it, sometimes known as the right to be forgotten.

Object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests, including in relation to direct marketing, and request that we stop or restrict such processing.

Request restriction of processing in certain situations, for example while we verify the accuracy of data you believe is incorrect.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to another organisation in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, where technically feasible and where the processing is based on consent or contract.

Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on your consent to process personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before it was withdrawn.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact details you normally use for our services and clearly state the right you wish to exercise. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, please contact us so that we can try to resolve your concerns. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioners Office or the relevant supervisory authority in your country if you believe your data protection rights have been breached.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, the way we process data, or legal requirements. Any updates will apply from the date they are published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data when you use House Clearance Highbury services in the Highbury area.