Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

ServTel is the controller of the personal information described in this Privacy Policy. This means that we decide why and how your personal information is processed.

References in this policy to “ServTel”, “we”, “us” or “our” mean Serv Tel Ltd.

2. How to Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy, our use of your personal information or the exercise of your data protection rights may be sent to:

We have not appointed a statutory Data Protection Officer unless expressly stated otherwise. Privacy enquiries should therefore be directed to the contact details above.

3. Personal Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with us and the services you request. We may collect and process the following categories of personal information.

3.1 Identity information

• Your full name;
• Your title;
• The name of your business, landlord, managing agent or organisation;
• Your role or job title, where relevant;
• Customer, quotation, booking or account reference numbers; and
• Information needed to confirm that you are authorised to arrange work at a property.

3.2 Contact information

• Residential, business, billing and service addresses;
• Email addresses;
• Telephone and mobile numbers;
• Preferred contact method;
• Alternative or emergency contact details; and
• Communication preferences.

3.3 Property and installation information

• The address and type of property at which services are required;
• Information about roof access, height, layout and surrounding areas;
• The number, type, position and condition of solar panels;
• Details of solar panel mounting systems, inverters and associated equipment;
• Information about existing damage, contamination, nesting or wildlife activity;
• Access restrictions, parking arrangements and entry instructions;
• Information about occupants, tenants, landlords or property managers where relevant;
• Photographs, videos, diagrams and inspection notes relating to the property or installation; and
• Health and safety information relevant to the safe delivery of our services.

3.4 Enquiry, quotation and booking information

• The services you are interested in;
• Information included in contact forms, quotation requests and booking forms;
• Your preferred dates and times;
• Details of previous cleaning, maintenance or meshing work;
• Questions, instructions and additional requirements;
• Quotation history and accepted or declined quotations;
• Appointment and service history; and
• Cancellation, postponement and rescheduling information.

3.5 Transaction and payment information

• Amounts quoted, invoiced and paid;
• Billing details;
• Payment status and transaction references;
• Refund and credit information;
• Bank details where required to issue a refund or make a payment; and
• Records required for accounting, taxation and fraud-prevention purposes.

Payment card details may be processed directly by an independent payment service provider. We do not ordinarily retain complete payment card numbers or security codes on our own systems.

3.6 Communications

• Emails, letters, text messages and online messages;
• Telephone call notes and, where lawfully implemented, call recordings;
• Customer service enquiries;
• Complaints, feedback and reviews;
• Requests to exercise data protection rights; and
• Records of consent, preferences and objections.

3.7 Technical and website information

• Internet Protocol address;
• Browser type and version;
• Device type, operating system and screen characteristics;
• Approximate location derived from an IP address;
• Time zone and language settings;
• Pages viewed, links selected and actions taken on the website;
• Referring website or advertising source;
• Date, time and duration of visits;
• Cookie identifiers and consent preferences;
• Website error, security and diagnostic information; and
• Information used to identify or prevent malicious activity.

3.8 Supplier, contractor and business-contact information

• Names and professional contact details;
• Business names and registration information;
• Job titles and areas of responsibility;
• Insurance, accreditation and qualification information;
• Payment and banking information;
• Contracts, purchase orders and correspondence; and
• Information needed to manage our commercial relationship.

3.9 Special-category information

We do not ordinarily seek to collect special-category personal information, such as information concerning health, disability, ethnicity, religious beliefs or trade-union membership.

In limited circumstances, you may provide health or accessibility information where this is relevant to arranging a safe appointment, communicating with you, entering a property or making a reasonable adjustment. We will only process such information where permitted by law and only to the extent reasonably necessary.

3.10 Criminal-offence information

We do not ordinarily collect criminal-conviction or criminal-offence information about customers. Where information of this nature is processed, it will only be processed where permitted by applicable law and subject to appropriate safeguards.

4. How We Collect Personal Information

We may collect personal information:

• Directly from you when you telephone, email or write to us;
• When you complete a form on our website;
• When you request a quotation, survey, inspection or service;
• When you make, amend or cancel a booking;
• When we attend a property or carry out work;
• When you make a payment or request a refund;
• When you submit a complaint, review, testimonial or other feedback;
• When you subscribe to marketing or change your communication preferences;
• Automatically through cookies, server logs and similar technologies;
• From landlords, letting agents, property managers, housing providers or commercial clients;
• From another person who is authorised to arrange a service on your behalf;
• From suppliers, subcontractors and professional advisers;
• From payment, fraud-prevention and identity-verification providers;
• From publicly available sources, such as Companies House or business websites;
• From online advertising, directory or lead-generation services; and
• From another organisation where the disclosure is lawful.

Where someone provides your information to us on your behalf, that person should ensure that they are authorised to do so and that you have been made aware of this Privacy Policy.

5. How We Use Personal Information

We may use personal information to:

• Respond to questions and enquiries;
• Assess your service requirements;
• Prepare and issue quotations or estimates;
• Arrange surveys, inspections and appointments;
• Confirm whether we can safely access and work at a property;
• Provide solar panel cleaning, maintenance and meshing services;
• Identify existing damage, access issues, wildlife activity or safety hazards;
• Communicate with customers before, during and after a service visit;
• Manage changes, delays, cancellations and rescheduled appointments;
• Create service records, inspection notes and completion reports;
• Issue invoices, receive payments and process refunds;
• Manage warranties, remedial work and aftercare;
• Handle enquiries, complaints, claims and disputes;
• Verify instructions and prevent fraud or misuse of our services;
• Protect our staff, contractors, customers, property and equipment;
• Comply with health and safety, insurance, accounting and legal requirements;
• Manage our relationships with suppliers, contractors and commercial partners;
• Maintain and improve our website and services;
• Measure website performance and understand how visitors use our website;
• Protect our website and systems against spam, abuse and cyberattacks;
• Send marketing communications where permitted by law;
• Establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
• Comply with lawful requests from courts, regulators and public authorities; and
• Support a sale, restructuring or transfer of all or part of our business.

We will not use your personal information for a purpose that is incompatible with the purpose for which it was collected unless this is permitted or required by law.

6. Our Lawful Bases for Processing

The UK GDPR requires us to identify a lawful basis for each purpose for which we process personal information. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on one or more of the following bases.

6.1 Contract

We process information where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. For example, we need your contact and property information to prepare a quotation, arrange an appointment and provide the requested service.

6.2 Legal obligation

We process information where necessary to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, taxation, consumer-protection, health and safety and regulatory requirements.

6.3 Legitimate interests

We may process information where this is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of another person, provided that those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.

Our legitimate interests may include:

• Operating and improving our business;
• Responding to enquiries and providing customer support;
• Keeping accurate records of quotations and completed work;
• Planning routes, appointments and staffing;
• Ensuring the quality and safety of our work;
• Protecting customers, staff, contractors and property;
• Recovering debts and preventing fraud;
• Handling complaints and defending legal claims;
• Maintaining the security and performance of our website; and
• Promoting relevant services where permitted by law.

6.4 Consent

We rely on consent where the law requires it, including for certain marketing communications, optional cookies and similar technologies. You may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect processing carried out lawfully before consent was withdrawn.

6.5 Vital interests

In a genuine emergency, we may process or disclose personal information where this is necessary to protect someone’s life or physical safety.

7. Service Visits and Property Information

To assess, quote for or complete work, we may need information about a property and its solar panel installation. This information may include photographs, roof dimensions, access points, panel positions, evidence of nesting or contamination, and the condition of cables, mounting systems or surrounding materials.

We ask customers not to provide unnecessary personal information about occupants or neighbouring properties. Before sending photographs or video, please take reasonable steps to avoid including people, vehicle registration numbers, private documents, security codes or unrelated areas of neighbouring properties.

Where you arrange work for a property that you do not own, you are responsible for ensuring that you have the necessary permission from the property owner, landlord, tenant, managing agent or other authorised person.

Access instructions should be limited to information reasonably necessary for the appointment. We recommend that permanent alarm codes, key-safe codes or other security credentials are not sent unless specifically required. Temporary access codes should be used where possible.

8. Photographs, Video and Service Documentation

Our staff or contractors may take photographs or videos before, during and after work for purposes such as:

• Assessing the condition of an installation;
• Preparing or supporting a quotation;
• Recording existing damage or safety issues;
• Planning access and determining suitable equipment;
• Documenting the work completed;
• Supporting quality-control, warranty or insurance records;
• Responding to questions, complaints or disputes; and
• Providing evidence to a customer, landlord, insurer or property manager.

We will seek to limit images to the installation, roof, access area and other details relevant to the service. We do not intentionally photograph individuals inside a property or unrelated private areas.

We will not ordinarily use identifiable photographs of your property for advertising, social media, case studies or other promotional purposes without obtaining appropriate permission. Where images have been effectively anonymised so that neither an individual nor a property can reasonably be identified, we may use them for training, technical or illustrative purposes where lawful.

9. Marketing Communications

We may send information about our services, seasonal cleaning reminders, maintenance recommendations, protective meshing services or related offers where you have consented or where another lawful basis permits us to do so.

Marketing communications may be sent by email, text message, telephone or post, depending on the permissions and contact details available to us.

You may opt out of marketing at any time by:

• Selecting the unsubscribe link in a marketing email;
• Following the opt-out instructions in a text message;
• Asking a caller to update your preferences; or
• Contacting us using the details in this policy.

Opting out of marketing will not prevent us from sending service-related messages, such as quotation confirmations, appointment reminders, invoices, safety information or responses to your enquiries.

We do not sell personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

10. Cookies and Website Technologies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to operate correctly, remember preferences, maintain security, process forms, measure performance and understand how visitors use the website.

Where required by law, non-essential cookies will not be placed on your device unless you have given consent. You can withdraw or change your cookie choices through the cookie-management controls made available on the website.

Further information about the cookies used on our website, their purposes and their duration should be provided in our separate Cookie Policy.

11. Sharing Personal Information

We may share personal information where this is necessary for the purposes described in this policy. Recipients may include:

• Employees and authorised representatives of ServTel;
• Solar panel cleaners, installers, technicians and maintenance contractors;
• Scaffolding, access-platform or specialist equipment providers;
• Wildlife-control or related specialist contractors where appropriate;
• Appointment, scheduling and customer-management system providers;
• Website hosting, email, cloud-storage and IT-support providers;
• Payment processors, banks and financial institutions;
• Accountants, auditors, insurers, solicitors and other professional advisers;
• Marketing and communications providers acting on our instructions;
• Analytics, security, spam-prevention and fraud-prevention providers;
• Landlords, property owners, managing agents or commercial clients where they arranged the service;
• Courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies and public authorities;
• Debt-recovery and dispute-resolution providers;
• Potential purchasers, investors or advisers involved in a corporate transaction; and
• Any other person where you ask or authorise us to make the disclosure.

Service providers that process personal information on our behalf are required to use it only for authorised purposes and to apply appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

Some third parties, such as banks, insurers, professional advisers or government bodies, may process information as independent controllers. Their processing will be governed by their own privacy information and legal responsibilities.

We may disclose information where we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to:

• Comply with a law, court order or lawful regulatory request;
• Prevent or investigate fraud, theft or other unlawful activity;
• Protect the safety, rights or property of our customers, personnel or others;
• Enforce a contract or recover money owed to us; or
• Establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

12. International Transfers

Some organisations that support our website or business may store or process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred to a country that is not recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection, we will use an appropriate legal safeguard where required. This may include:

• UK-approved standard contractual clauses;
• The UK International Data Transfer Agreement;
• The UK Addendum to approved EU standard contractual clauses;
• A transfer to a country or organisation covered by UK adequacy regulations; or
• Another transfer mechanism permitted by UK data protection law.

We will also consider whether additional technical, contractual or organisational protections are appropriate for the transfer.

13. How Long We Keep Personal Information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, tax, insurance, contractual and reporting requirements.

The appropriate retention period depends on the nature of the information, the service provided, the risks associated with continued retention and any applicable legal requirements.

These periods are general guidelines and may be shortened or extended where appropriate. For example, we may retain information for longer where there is an ongoing complaint, unpaid invoice, insurance issue, legal claim or regulatory requirement.

When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, destroyed or anonymised. Anonymised information that can no longer identify an individual may be retained for statistical, training or business-planning purposes.

14. Information Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.

Depending on the circumstances, these measures may include:

• Access controls and user permissions;
• Password protection and multi-factor authentication;
• Encryption in transit and, where appropriate, at rest;
• Secure hosting, backup and recovery arrangements;
• Anti-malware, firewall and security-monitoring measures;
• Staff confidentiality obligations and data-protection awareness;
• Supplier due diligence and contractual data-protection obligations;
• Procedures for managing access requests and security incidents;
• Secure deletion and disposal processes; and
• Periodic review of our systems, policies and working practices.

No internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You should therefore take care when sending personal information electronically and avoid including unnecessary sensitive information.

Where we become aware of a personal data breach, we will investigate and respond in accordance with applicable legal requirements. Where required, we will notify the Information Commissioner’s Office and affected individuals.

15. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the following rights under UK data protection law.

15.1 Right of access

You may ask whether we process your personal information and request a copy of the information we hold about you, together with certain supporting information.

15.2 Right to rectification

You may ask us to correct personal information that is inaccurate or complete information that is incomplete.

15.3 Right to erasure

You may ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances. This right is not absolute, and we may need to retain information where there is a lawful reason to do so.

15.4 Right to restrict processing

You may ask us to temporarily limit how we use your information in certain circumstances, including while its accuracy or our lawful basis is being considered.

15.5 Right to object

You may object to processing based on legitimate interests where your particular situation gives you grounds to do so. We may continue processing where we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds or where processing is required for legal claims.

You have an absolute right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.

15.6 Right to data portability

Where processing is based on consent or contract and is carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive certain information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or ask us to transfer it to another controller where technically feasible.

15.7 Right to withdraw consent

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

15.8 Rights relating to automated decision-making

You may have rights in relation to decisions made solely by automated means that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

ServTel does not ordinarily make significant decisions about customers solely through automated processing.

15.9 How to exercise your rights

To exercise a data protection right, contact us using the details in Section 2. Please clearly explain which right you wish to exercise and provide enough information for us to identify the relevant records.

We may ask for reasonable evidence of identity before disclosing, deleting or changing personal information. This is intended to prevent information from being disclosed to an unauthorised person.

You will not ordinarily be charged a fee. We may, however, charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, where the law permits us to do so.

We will normally respond within one month of receiving a valid request. Where a request is particularly complex or numerous, the law may permit us to extend this period. If an extension is required, we will explain the reason.

Data protection rights are not absolute. Legal exemptions may apply, and we may retain or withhold information where this is permitted or required by law.

16. Children’s Information

Our website and services are not directed at children, and our services must be arranged by an adult or an appropriately authorised organisation.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children for marketing purposes. If information about a child is incidentally provided in connection with access, safety or a service appointment, we will only use it where reasonably necessary and lawful.

Please contact us if you believe that a child has submitted personal information through our website without appropriate authorisation.

17. Third-Party Websites and Services

Our website may contain links to websites, maps, payment platforms, social-media services or other online resources operated by third parties.

We are not responsible for the privacy, security or content of third-party websites. You should review the privacy information provided by the relevant third party before submitting personal information or using its services.

18. Questions and Complaints

Please contact us first if you have a question or concern about how we process your personal information. We will investigate complaints and seek to resolve concerns fairly and promptly.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), the UK supervisory authority for data protection.

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/

We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, although you are entitled to contact the ICO at any time.

19. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services, website, suppliers, working practices or legal obligations.

The latest version will be published on this page, and the “Last updated” date at the top of the policy will be revised. Where a change is material, we may also provide an additional notice by email, through the website or by another appropriate method.

We recommend reviewing this Privacy Policy periodically to remain informed about how we use personal information.