Privacy Policy - Northkensington Removals

This Privacy Policy explains how Northkensington Removals collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in connection with our removal and related services.

This policy applies to all Northkensington Removals customers in the area, including individuals, households, landlords, tenants, and business clients who use our services. It is intended to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Northkensington Removals is a removals service provider that handles household and commercial moves, packing, loading, transport, and related support services. In the course of providing these services, we may process personal data about customers, their representatives, and other individuals connected to a move.

For the purposes of data protection law, Northkensington Removals acts as the data controller when we decide how and why personal data is used.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data necessary to provide our services, manage our relationship with you, and meet our legal obligations. The categories of data we may collect include:

Identity details such as your name, title, and, where relevant, the name of a business or organisation.
Contact details such as telephone number, email address, billing address, move address, and correspondence address.
Service information such as move date, inventory details, access requirements, special handling instructions, and estimates or quotations.
Payment and transaction details such as payment confirmations, invoices, and records of amounts paid or owed.
Communication records such as enquiries, complaints, feedback, and notes from phone calls, emails, or messages.
Property and access information such as loading restrictions, parking requirements, entry instructions, or floor access details.
Identification data where necessary for fraud prevention, insurance purposes, or legal compliance.
Technical data such as limited device or usage information if you contact us through digital systems that automatically record it.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is necessary and relevant to a specific service requirement, such as accessibility needs you choose to share with us. If such data is provided, we will handle it with additional care and only where lawful grounds apply.

3. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use personal data to operate our business and deliver removal services effectively. Typical uses include:

Providing quotes, confirming bookings, and arranging services.
Planning and completing removals, packing, storage, and related logistics.
Communicating with you before, during, and after a move.
Processing payments, issuing invoices, and managing accounts.
Handling customer service requests, complaints, and claims.
Meeting insurance, tax, accounting, and legal obligations.
Maintaining internal records and improving service quality.
Preventing fraud, misuse, or unlawful activity.

We will only use your data for purposes that are compatible with the original reason it was collected, unless we have a lawful basis to do otherwise.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. Northkensington Removals relies on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract — processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, such as providing a quote, booking a move, or completing a service.
Legal obligation — processing is necessary to comply with laws, including tax, accounting, fraud prevention, and record-keeping duties.
Legitimate interests — processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as service administration, improving operations, protecting our business, and responding to customer queries, provided your rights do not override those interests.
Consent — in limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where you voluntarily provide information not otherwise required for the service. You may withdraw consent at any time where it is the basis used.

Where we process special category data, we will only do so when an additional condition under UK GDPR applies, such as your explicit consent or another applicable legal basis.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to provide our services or meet legal requirements. These parties may act as processors or, in some cases, as independent controllers.

Processors are organisations that process personal data on our instructions. We may use processors for the following functions:

IT and cloud service providers for secure data storage, communication tools, and business systems.
Payment processors for handling card or electronic payments.
Accounting and bookkeeping providers for financial administration and compliance.
Insurance providers and claims handlers where records are needed to assess or manage a claim.
Professional advisers such as legal or tax advisers where necessary.
Subcontracted service partners who assist with specific parts of a removal, such as specialist handling or storage support.

We require processors to protect personal data, use it only for permitted purposes, and maintain appropriate security measures. We do not sell your personal data.

We may also disclose information if required by law, court order, regulatory request, or to protect our rights, property, customers, or staff.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and in line with legal, accounting, and operational requirements.

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of record, but generally:

Customer service and booking records are retained for the duration of the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and invoice records are retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Claims and complaints records may be kept longer where needed to resolve disputes or insurance issues.
Communication records are kept only as long as needed to manage the enquiry or support request.

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

7. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, limited staff access, and data minimisation practices.

While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we work to protect personal data at a level appropriate to the risks involved.

8. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

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 how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object — to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
Right to data portability — to request transfer of certain data to you or another controller, where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent — where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exceptions. If we cannot comply with a request, we will explain the reason where permitted by law.

9. How to Exercise Your Rights

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, please make a request using the appropriate communication channel used in your dealings with us. We may need to verify your identity before responding, to protect your data and prevent unauthorised disclosure.

We aim to respond within the time limits required by law. If your request is complex or if we receive multiple requests, we may need additional time, and we will keep you informed.

10. International Transfers

In some cases, service providers may store or process data outside the UK. Where this happens, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information in line with applicable law.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legal, operational, or service changes. The most current version will apply to our processing of personal data. We encourage customers to review it periodically.

12. Summary of Our Commitment

Northkensington Removals is committed to handling personal data responsibly, lawfully, and transparently. We collect only the information needed to provide our services, use it for clear and legitimate purposes, retain it only as long as necessary, and share it only with trusted processors or where required by law.

By using Northkensington Removals services, customers in the area acknowledge that their personal data may be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.