Privacy Policy - Wandsworth Removals

This Privacy Policy explains how Wandsworth Removals collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in connection with the services we provide. It applies to all Wandsworth Removals customers in the area, including individuals, households, landlords, tenants, and business clients who use our moving, packing, storage, and related services.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner. We respect your privacy and aim to ensure that all personal information is processed in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Wandsworth Removals is a removals and moving services provider. In this policy, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to Wandsworth Removals. “You” means any customer, prospective customer, website visitor, or other individual whose personal data we process.

This policy applies to personal data collected when you enquire about our services, request a quote, book a removal, communicate with us, or otherwise interact with us in relation to our services.

2. Personal Data We Collect

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

Identity details such as your name, title, and, where relevant, company name.
Contact details such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service information such as moving dates, property details, inventory lists, access details, and delivery instructions.
Payment and billing information such as transaction records, invoice details, and payment status.
Communication records including emails, messages, call notes, and customer service correspondence.
Technical data such as IP address, browser type, and device information if you interact with our online systems.
Special category data only where strictly necessary and where you voluntarily provide it, for example information about access needs or health-related mobility considerations to support safe service delivery.

We do not intentionally collect more personal data than is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide removal, packing, transport, storage, and related services.
To prepare quotations, assess service requirements, and manage bookings.
To communicate with you about your enquiry, booking, schedule, and service updates.
To process payments, issue invoices, and maintain financial records.
To manage customer service, complaints, claims, and dispute resolution.
To ensure health and safety, including the safe handling of items and planning of access arrangements.
To comply with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations.
To improve our services, internal processes, and customer experience.
To detect and prevent fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for a compatible purpose or another lawful purpose permitted by law.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only process personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the activity, our lawful bases may include:

Contract – where processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, such as managing your move or providing a quote at your request.
Legal obligation – where processing is required to comply with applicable law, including tax, accounting, and record-keeping requirements.
Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and rights do not override those interests. This may include service improvement, business administration, fraud prevention, and customer communications.
Consent – where we rely on your consent, such as for certain optional communications or for processing special category data when required. You may withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it.

Where special category data is processed, we do so only when there is an additional lawful condition under data protection law, such as your explicit consent or where necessary for health and safety purposes in limited circumstances.

5. Sharing Your Data and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this policy. These third parties act as processors or independent controllers, depending on the service they provide.

Processors are organisations that process personal data on our behalf under written instructions. They may include:

IT and software providers that support our booking, communications, and data storage systems.
Payment service providers that process transactions securely.
Accounting and invoicing providers.
Storage partners or logistics suppliers used to fulfil your requested service.
Professional advisers such as insurers, lawyers, accountants, and claims handlers.

We require processors to keep your data secure and to use it only for the purposes we instruct. We do not permit them to use your data for their own marketing purposes unless they are independently acting as controllers and have a lawful basis to do so.

We may also disclose data where required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect our rights, safety, or property, or the rights, safety, or property of others.

6. International Transfers

In some cases, your data may be stored or processed outside the United Kingdom. If this occurs, we will take appropriate steps to ensure your personal data is protected by suitable safeguards and that any international transfer complies with applicable data protection law.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for legal, accounting, insurance, or reporting requirements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of data and the reason it is held.

As a general approach:

Customer and booking records are retained for the period needed to manage the service and handle any follow-up issues.
Financial and tax-related records are retained for the period required by law.
Claims, complaints, and dispute records may be retained for as long as needed to resolve the matter and protect our legal position.
Marketing consent records are kept until you withdraw consent or until they are no longer needed.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, destroy, or anonymise it.

8. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, alteration, or disclosure. These measures are designed to reflect the nature of the data we hold and the risks associated with processing it.

Although no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we take reasonable steps to safeguard the information entrusted to us and to limit access to authorised personnel and service providers only.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights regarding your personal data. These may include:

The right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
The right to rectification – to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
The right to erasure – to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
The right to restrict processing – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
The right to data portability – to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
The right to object – to object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing.
The right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed. We encourage you to raise any concerns with us first so that we may try to resolve the issue.

10. Marketing Communications

We may send you service-related communications that are necessary to fulfil your booking or maintain our relationship with you. We will only send marketing communications where permitted by law, and where required, with your consent. You can opt out of marketing at any time.

11. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidental to the provision of services to a household or where provided by an adult customer. If we become aware that we have collected data unlawfully from a child, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our services, or how we process personal data. Any updates will take effect when published or otherwise communicated. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

13. Summary of Key Principles

In short, we only collect data that is necessary, process it on a lawful basis, share it carefully with trusted processors, retain it only for as long as needed, and respect your rights under data protection law. We aim to keep your data safe, use it responsibly, and be transparent about how we handle it.

This policy applies to all Wandsworth Removals customers in the area.