Your data and your rights
Skyline Swindon Roofing is a roofing contractor based in Swindon, Wiltshire. For the information described below we decide what is collected and why, which makes us the data controller under UK data protection law. That law is the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We ask for the least we need to answer a roofing enquiry properly. A roof survey needs an address and a way to reach you. It does not need your date of birth, your bank details or your life story, and we will not ask for them on the enquiry form.
If anything on this page is unclear, ring 01793 626096 or send a message through the enquiry form and we will explain it in plain words.
What information we collect
What we hold depends on how you deal with us. Most people fall into one of the groups below.
When you send an enquiry or ask for a quote
You give us your name, a phone number, usually an email address, and the address of the property that needs work. You also tell us what is wrong with the roof, or what you want done. If you choose to attach photographs, we receive those as well. Photographs of a roof can sometimes show a neighbour's garden, a car number plate or a window, so please send only what you are comfortable sharing.
When you call, text or use WhatsApp
We see your phone number and keep the messages in the conversation. If you send a photograph of a leak or a damaged ridge by WhatsApp, it sits in that chat. WhatsApp is run by Meta, which has its own privacy terms, and those apply to the app itself. We only use it to talk to you about the work.
When we survey your roof
The survey produces photographs of your roof and notes on its condition. These belong to the quote and the job record. They are taken to show you the fault, not to identify anyone, and we try to keep people and neighbouring houses out of frame.
When you become a customer
If you accept a quote, we also keep the written quote, the agreed work, dates, any variation to the work, payment records and the paperwork for the workmanship guarantee. Where building work is notifiable, we keep the details we send to the building control body.
When you simply visit this website
Your browser tells our website basic technical information, such as the device type, the pages you open and the address of the page you came from. The cookie policy explains which cookies are used and how to switch the optional ones off.
Why we use your information and our legal basis
UK law says we must have a lawful reason for each use of personal data. These are ours.
- To answer your enquiry and prepare a quote. You have asked us to take steps before a contract, so we use your details to do that. The legal basis is steps taken at your request before entering into a contract.
- To carry out and look after the work. Once you accept a quote, we need your details to book the work, reach you on the day, issue paperwork and honour the guarantee. The legal basis is performing our contract with you.
- To meet legal duties. Accounting records, building control notifications and consumer law all require us to keep some information. The legal basis is a legal obligation.
- To run the business sensibly. We may keep a record of past enquiries so that we can reply to a follow-up question, deal with a complaint or defend a claim. The legal basis is our legitimate interests, and we weigh those against your rights each time.
- To send you marketing, only if you agree. We do not add anyone to a mailing list because they asked for a quote. If we ever offer updates, we will ask first and you can withdraw consent whenever you like. The legal basis is your consent.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions about you, and we do not build profiles of customers.
Who we share your information with
We do not sell your personal data and we do not hand it to advertisers. It is shared only where the job needs it.
- Contractors and crews. The people who survey or carry out your roof work need your address, a phone number and the details of the job. They use it for your job only.
- Suppliers. A materials supplier may need a delivery address and a contact number so that slate, tiles or lead arrive at the right place on the right day.
- Building control. Where the work is notifiable, we pass the necessary details to the council's building control team or a registered building control approver.
- Our service providers. We use ordinary business tools such as email, phone, messaging, website hosting and accounting. These providers handle data on our behalf and only under our instructions.
- Professional advisers, regulators and the courts. If the law requires it, or if we need advice to deal with a dispute, we will share what is necessary and no more.
Some of our providers may store or process information outside the UK. Where that happens we expect them to use recognised safeguards, such as the UK's approved transfer clauses, so that your data keeps equivalent protection.
How long we keep your information
We keep personal data only as long as there is a reason to. The periods below are our working approach, and the reason matters more than the number.
| Type of record | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not go ahead | For a limited time after the last contact, so we can answer a follow-up. Then deleted. |
| Quotes and survey photographs | While the quote is open, and afterwards for as long as a dispute or guarantee query could reasonably arise. |
| Job records and guarantee paperwork | For the length of the 10-year workmanship guarantee, so we can check what was done and when. |
| Accounting and payment records | For the period the law requires for business accounts. |
| Marketing consent records | Until you withdraw consent, plus a short record that you did. |
When a record is no longer needed we delete it or strip out the details that identify you.
Keeping your information safe
We protect personal data in ordinary, practical ways. Devices that hold customer details are password protected. Access is limited to the people who need a record to do their part of the job. Messages and photographs are kept in the business accounts we control, not scattered across personal ones.
No website, phone line or messaging app is completely free of risk, and we cannot promise otherwise. If a data breach were likely to harm you, we would tell you and, where the law requires it, report it to the Information Commissioner's Office.
You can help too. Please do not send card numbers, passwords or copies of identity documents through the enquiry form or in a message. We will never need them to give you a roofing quote.
Your rights over your information
The law gives you a set of rights over the personal data we hold. You do not have to give a reason to use them and they do not cost anything in the normal course of events.
- Access. You can ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction. If something is wrong or out of date, you can ask us to fix it.
- Deletion. You can ask us to erase your data. We will do so unless we have to keep it, for instance for accounts or because a guarantee is still running.
- Restriction. You can ask us to pause the way we use your data while a disagreement about it is sorted out.
- Objection. You can object to uses that rest on our legitimate interests, and to any direct marketing.
- Portability. Where we hold data you gave us and we process it by automated means under a contract or consent, you can ask for a copy in a common format.
- Withdrawing consent. Where we rely on your consent, you can take it back at any time, and that does not affect what we did before.
To use any of these rights, ring 01793 626096 or write to us through the enquiry form and say which right you mean. We may need to check who you are before we release anything, because handing your details to the wrong person would be a breach in itself. We aim to reply within one month, and if a request is complicated enough to need longer, we will let you know.
Complaints about how we handle your data
If you are unhappy with the way we have used your information, tell us first. We acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days of receiving it, and our complaints procedure sets out how we deal with it.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection. Its website is ico.org.uk. You can contact the ICO at any time, though it recommends giving us the chance to put things right first.
Links to other sites and changes to this policy
Our pages sometimes link to official sources, such as the Planning Portal or a council's own guidance, so that you can check a rule for yourself. Once you follow a link you are on another organisation's site, and its privacy terms apply instead of ours.
We may change this policy when our practices or the law change. The current version is always the one on this page. If a change would affect how we use data you have already given us, we will make that clear rather than hoping it goes unnoticed.
For the terms that apply to roofing work itself, see our terms and conditions, and for the cookies this website sets, see the cookie policy.
Note: this policy is a first plain-English draft, and a qualified legal adviser is due to review it; wording may change once that review is done.