Who is responsible for your information?
Hine Plumbing, operated by Lee Hine, is the controller responsible for the customer information described here. Our trading address is 119 Skylark Way, Shinfield, Wokingham, RG2 9AD. For a privacy question or rights request, contact us by Email, WhatsApp or Mobile.
This notice covers enquiries, customers, people arranging work on someone else’s behalf, visitors to this site and people whose details are needed for an appointment. It explains business records as well as information submitted through the website. It is separate from the privacy notices of services you choose to open, such as WhatsApp or a card-payment provider.
What we collect
When you contact us, we may collect your name, phone number, email address, service address/postcode, the details of your plumbing issue, requested dates, photographs you send, and notes needed to safely carry out work (for example access or parking information). Once work is booked, we also keep job, risk-assessment, photo, quotation, invoice, payment-status and service-agreement records. An agreement record includes the name typed as a signature, the date/time of signing and a privacy-protective security record derived from the signing connection.
Customer-portal feedback uses your existing account details, your message and a job selected from your account. These messages are private office records, not public testimonials. Feedback is linked to the verified job reference and retained with relevant customer service records.
Why we use it
Enquiries and jobs: contact details, descriptions, addresses and relevant images are used to take steps you request before a contract, and to arrange and perform agreed work. Without the information necessary for a visit, we may be unable to quote or attend.
Administration: invoice and payment records support our legal accounting obligations. Relevant job and correspondence records also support our legitimate interests in handling queries, demonstrating what was agreed and resolving disputes.
Security and safety: proportionate technical logs, access controls and work records support our legitimate interests in protecting customers, staff and systems. We consider the effect on the people concerned. Where we rely on consent for a separate optional use, we explain that choice and you may withdraw it without affecting earlier lawful use.
Who can see it
Relevant information is available to authorised staff who need it for your enquiry or job. Providers supporting website hosting, communications, payments, accounting and secure storage may process information for those tasks. We do not sell customer information or make enquiry images public.
When a Stripe payment link is provided, Stripe handles payment details on its payment service; we keep the business transaction record and status. Opening WhatsApp shares information with that service under its own terms. Professional advisers, insurers or authorities may receive relevant records where necessary for advice, a claim or a legal obligation.
If another person arranges the work, we may need to communicate appropriate appointment or job information with them. Tell us if authority or contact arrangements change. We do not treat someone knowing your address as sufficient authority to receive all your records.
How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not become work are normally reviewed for deletion after 24 months. Customer, job, invoice and payment records are generally retained for at least six years where accounting, insurance or claims requirements justify this. The relevant period depends on the type of record and obligation, rather than every record being kept indefinitely.
Work images, safety records and agreements are assessed against their job, warranty and dispute purpose. A live complaint, claim or legal requirement may justify keeping relevant evidence longer. Unnecessary duplicates and unrelated information should not be retained. These are retention criteria and review periods, not a promise of automatic deletion on a particular day.
When records are deleted from active systems, residual copies may remain in protected backups until those backups are replaced. Information restored after an incident should remain subject to the same deletion decisions. Contact us if you need to know the retention basis for a particular record.
Your rights
You can request access to your personal information, correction of mistakes, erasure or restriction where applicable, and portability where the legal conditions apply. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. These rights are not absolute: legal record-keeping or a relevant claim may justify retaining some information.
Contact us using the links above and explain your request. We may ask for proportionate information to verify identity or clarify the records concerned. Requests are normally free and answered within one month; where the law permits an extension or different timing, we explain it. We will explain any lawful refusal and how to challenge it.
You may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You do not have to complete our complaints procedure before exercising your data rights or contacting the regulator.
Photos and safety information
Photos and property notes help us quote accurately and protect both you and our staff. Please avoid including people or unrelated personal information in photos where possible. Before/during/after job photos and risk assessments are restricted to the job record and used as evidence of the work and safety controls.
Where information comes from
Most information comes from you through a form, message, conversation or visit. We may also receive relevant details from someone authorised to arrange work, such as a landlord, letting agent or household member, and transaction updates from payment services.
Please only share another person’s details where you are entitled to do so, and tell them we may use those details for the job. We may need to check their authority, confirm arrangements with them directly, or provide this notice when contacting them.
Private links and security
Customer portal and enquiry-response links can give access to private job information. Keep them confidential, avoid forwarding them unnecessarily and contact us if a link is lost or sent to the wrong person. We may need to verify your identity before changing access or disclosing records.
Access controls and secure connections reduce risk, but no online service can be guaranteed risk-free. Do not put passwords, card details or unnecessary sensitive information in messages or uploads. Tell us promptly about a suspected disclosure so it can be investigated. The website does not use automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects to accept or reject plumbing jobs.
Processing outside the UK
Hosting, communications and payment suppliers may operate internationally. Where personal information is transferred outside the UK under our responsibility, a lawful transfer arrangement is required, such as UK adequacy regulations or appropriate contractual safeguards.
You can ask us which providers and safeguards are relevant to your information. An external service you choose to use, such as WhatsApp, also explains its own international handling in its privacy notice. This notice does not mean that every provider stores every record only in the UK.
Optional uses and sensitive details
An enquiry is not permission to publish your photographs, name or review, or to add you to unrelated marketing. If we ask to use identifiable material for publicity, we explain the proposed use separately. You can decline without affecting the plumbing work.
Describe practical access or safety needs without sharing a medical history or other unnecessary sensitive details. If sensitive information is genuinely needed, we will discuss the minimum information and appropriate handling rather than asking you to post it in an open message.
Website storage and updates
Our cookie policy describes the staff sign-in cookie, portal offline queue and draft/cache storage, and the optional browser preference that remembers a dismissed notice only when you choose that option. The public website currently has no analytics or advertising cookies. A server may still receive ordinary connection information when it serves a page; that is different from a tracking cookie.
This notice was updated on 6 October 2026. We may update it when our practices or obligations change. Material new uses of existing information need an appropriate lawful basis and information to the people affected; editing this page is not a substitute for that.