Battersea Removals Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Battersea Removals collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you use our services. It applies to all Battersea Removals customers and prospective customers within our service area, including individuals, households and business clients who contact us, request a quote or book our removal and related services.

We are committed to handling your personal data lawfully, fairly and transparently in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy Policy is designed to give you clear information about our data practices and your rights.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Battersea Removals is a removals and related services provider operating in the Battersea area and surrounding locations. This Privacy Policy applies whenever we act as a data controller in respect of your personal data, meaning when we determine the purposes and means of processing your information. It covers personal data collected through our website, over the phone, in person, in writing and via any other communication channels we use to provide our services.

Personal data we collect

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

Identification and contact details such as name, postal address, collection and delivery addresses, and other contact information you provide so that we can communicate with you about your booking and related services.

Booking and service information such as details of the property or premises involved in a move, inventory details relevant to the removal, access information, preferred dates and times, and any special instructions you choose to give us.

Account and communication information such as your communication preferences, queries or feedback, and records of correspondence with you, including notes of conversations and messages relating to quotes, bookings, complaints or after-service support.

Payment and transaction information relating to the services you purchase from us, which may include billing address, payment method details as required to process the transaction, and records of payments and invoices.

Website and technical information such as basic usage data collected when you visit our website, including pages visited and how you navigate our site. This may involve the use of cookies or similar technologies where permitted by law and where you have provided any required consent.

Optional and additional information such as any other personal data you voluntarily provide to us, for example when you complete a feedback form, respond to a satisfaction survey or participate in promotional activities.

Lawful bases for processing your data

We process your personal data only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the context, we rely on the following lawful grounds:

Contract performance. We process your data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes, confirming bookings, carrying out removals and related services, handling payments, and managing any changes or issues related to your contract with us.

Legitimate interests. We may process your personal data where necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include improving our services, managing our relationship with you, ensuring the security of our systems and operations, and maintaining accurate internal records.

Legal obligations. We may process your data to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, including record-keeping, tax and accounting requirements, responding to lawful requests from authorities, and complying with health and safety obligations.

Consent. In some situations, we may ask for your consent to use your data for specific purposes, such as sending you certain types of marketing communications or using cookies that are not strictly necessary. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time using the contact details provided to you when you gave that consent.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for purposes that are relevant, proportionate and compatible with the reasons for which the data was originally collected. This includes:

Providing and managing our removal and related services, including handling enquiries, preparing and sending quotes, planning and carrying out moves, and communicating with you throughout the process.

Processing payments and managing billing and accounts, including issuing invoices, processing refunds where applicable, and maintaining transaction records for financial and audit purposes.

Customer service and communication, such as responding to your questions or requests, dealing with complaints, and providing after-service support.

Service improvement and internal administration, including training our staff, monitoring service quality, managing risk, conducting internal reporting and planning, and developing new services or features.

Legal, regulatory and security purposes, such as exercising or defending legal claims, preventing fraud or misuse of our services, and ensuring compliance with our legal obligations.

Data sharing and processors

We may share your personal data with third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, where we have a lawful basis to do so and appropriate safeguards are in place. These third parties may include:

Service providers and data processors who help us deliver our services, such as IT and hosting providers, payment processing services, vehicle tracking or scheduling systems, and customer management and communication platforms. These parties act on our instructions and are contractually required to protect your data and use it only for the agreed purposes.

Professional advisers such as accountants, auditors, legal advisers and insurance providers who may need limited access to certain data for legitimate business, legal or regulatory reasons.

Public authorities and regulators where required by law, for example to comply with a court order, respond to a lawful request, or meet statutory reporting obligations.

Other third parties if required in connection with a business transaction such as a reorganisation or transfer of business operations, always in line with data protection requirements and subject to appropriate safeguards.

International transfers

Where any of our service providers or data processors are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, and your personal data is transferred internationally, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include standard contractual clauses approved by relevant authorities or other legally recognised mechanisms that provide an adequate level of protection for your personal data.

Data retention and storage

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. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the nature of our relationship with you.

In general, personal data related to quotes and enquiries may be kept for a period that allows us to respond to follow-up requests and manage our records, while data related to completed services and financial transactions is retained for longer periods as required by tax and accounting laws.

After the applicable retention period expires, we will either securely delete your data, anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you, or, where deletion is not technically feasible, securely store it and restrict access until deletion is possible.

Data security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access. These measures include access controls, staff training, appropriate use of passwords and security protocols, and the careful selection and oversight of third party service providers who process data on our behalf.

While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your information, no system can be completely secure. You are also responsible for taking reasonable precautions in your own interactions with us, such as not sharing sensitive information in insecure environments where this is not necessary.

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:

The right of access, which allows you to request confirmation of whether we hold personal data about you and to receive a copy of that data along with certain information about how it is processed.

The right to rectification, which allows you to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

The right to erasure, sometimes known as the right to be forgotten, which allows you to request deletion of your personal data where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to keep it.

The right to restriction of processing, which allows you to ask us to limit the way we use your data in certain circumstances.

The right to data portability, which allows you to receive certain personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to ask us to transmit that data to another controller where technically feasible.

The right to object to processing, including where we rely on legitimate interests as a lawful basis, and the right to object at any time to the use of your personal data for direct marketing.

Where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before it was withdrawn.

Exercising your rights and contacting us

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details made available to you on our official communications and website. To help us respond efficiently, please provide sufficient information to identify yourself and the nature of your request.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data. We would, however, welcome the opportunity to address your concerns first, and we encourage you to contact us so that we can try to resolve any issues.

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 best practices. Any updated version will take effect when it is made available. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we use and protect your personal data as a customer or prospective customer of Battersea Removals within our service area.