Privacy Policy - Fulham Removals

Fulham Removals is committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of all customers, prospective customers, and anyone who interacts with our services. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy applies to all Fulham Removals customers in the area, including individuals, households, and business clients who use or enquire about our removal services.

1. Who We Are

Fulham Removals provides removal, transport, packing, storage coordination, and related relocation services. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller of the personal information we collect and process in connection with our services. This means we decide why and how your personal data is used.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We only collect data that is necessary for the delivery and administration of our services, for legal compliance, and for customer support. Depending on your interactions with us, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

Identity data: name, title, and any relevant business or household contact details.
Contact data: address, email address, phone number, and moving location details.
Service data: details about your move, including property size, moving date, inventory information, access notes, special handling requirements, and service preferences.
Billing and payment data: invoicing details, payment status, and transaction records.
Communication data: records of calls, emails, messages, complaints, estimates, and service-related correspondence.
Technical data: limited information such as IP address or device-related information if you interact with our digital systems, booking forms, or online services.
Special category data: only where strictly necessary and with appropriate safeguards, such as information revealing accessibility needs, health-related moving requirements, or other details relevant to safe service delivery.

We do not intentionally collect unnecessary personal data, and we will not collect special category data unless it is required to provide a requested service, protect your interests, or comply with legal obligations.

3. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

to provide quotes, assess moving requirements, and arrange services;
to plan, carry out, and manage removals efficiently and safely;
to communicate with customers before, during, and after a service;
to issue invoices, process payments, and keep financial records;
to manage complaints, claims, or service queries;
to maintain internal records and improve our operations;
to comply with tax, accounting, insurance, and other legal obligations;
to protect our business, staff, and customers from fraud, misuse, or security risks.

We will never sell your personal data.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for every processing activity. Fulham Removals relies on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes preparing estimates, confirming bookings, completing removals, handling payments, and providing customer support related to the service.

Legal Obligation

We process certain data to comply with legal requirements, including accounting rules, tax laws, insurance obligations, record-keeping duties, and lawful requests from authorities.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. These interests include improving service quality, securing our operations, managing customer records, preventing fraud, and resolving disputes. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we assess and balance our needs against your privacy rights.

Consent

In limited situations, we may rely on your consent, particularly where the law requires it or where processing is not covered by another lawful basis. If we ask for consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect processing already carried out lawfully before the withdrawal.

Vital Interests and Special Category Data

In rare cases, we may process data to protect someone???s vital interests, such as where urgent safety information is needed during a move. If special category data is processed, we will apply an appropriate legal condition and additional safeguards.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to run our services, meet legal requirements, or protect our rights. These parties act as either processors or independent controllers depending on the service they provide.

Processors may include IT and hosting providers, secure data storage services, customer management platforms, payment service providers, communications systems, and document management tools.
Independent controllers may include accountants, insurers, legal advisers, or public authorities where they determine their own purposes for processing.

Where a third party acts as a processor, they only process data on our documented instructions and must keep it secure, confidential, and used solely for the agreed purpose. We require appropriate contractual safeguards with processors to ensure compliance with data protection law.

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, court order, regulation, or lawful request from a public authority, or where disclosure is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

6. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting, insurance, and reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of information and the purpose of processing.

Service and contract records: retained for the duration of the customer relationship and a reasonable period afterwards to handle queries or claims.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by law.
Complaint, dispute, and claim records: retained as long as needed to resolve the matter and protect our legal interests.
Enquiry records: retained for a limited period if no service is booked.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymise, or archive it in accordance with our retention procedures.

7. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, role-based permissions, encryption where appropriate, and staff awareness procedures. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we review our safeguards regularly and update them when needed.

8. Your Rights Under GDPR

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may be subject to legal limits, exemptions, or conditions depending on the circumstances.

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure: you can request deletion of your data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it.
Right to restriction: you can ask us to restrict how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to data portability: you may request a copy of certain data in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond within the time limits set by law and may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. We will not charge a fee unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

9. Children???s Data

Our services are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children except where it is incidental to household arrangements and necessary for the delivery of a customer???s move. Where child-related information is encountered, it is handled carefully and only for the purposes required.

10. 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 practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review the policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect personal data.

11. How We Apply This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all customers of Fulham Removals in the area, including anyone who requests a quote, books a move, receives a service, or communicates with us in relation to our removals operations. By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this policy and in accordance with applicable law.

Fulham Removals is dedicated to handling personal data fairly, lawfully, and transparently. We aim to use personal information only where necessary, keep it secure, retain it for no longer than required, and respect the rights of every individual whose data we process.