Legal
Privacy Policy
This policy explains what personal information ESCO Plumbing Ltd collects when you visit this website, phone or email us, or use our services, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have.
1. Who we are
ESCO Plumbing Ltd ("ESCO Plumbing™", "we", "us", "our") is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. We are a private limited company registered in Scotland with company number SC854622, and our registered office is 10 Broomhill Lane, Glasgow, G11 7NR.
For anything about this policy or your personal information, contact us:
- Email: info@esco-plumbing.co.uk
- Phone: 0141 474 2990
We are not required to appoint a data protection officer. Requests are handled by the company director.
2. Information we collect
Information you give us
When you phone or email us, ask for a quote, or book or receive our services, we may collect:
- Identity and contact details: your name, phone number, email address and postal address.
- Property details: the address where work is to be done, access arrangements (for example key-holder, door entry or alarm information you choose to give us), and details of the plumbing, heating, gas or air conditioning installation.
- Information about the job: descriptions of the problem, photographs or videos you send us, our notes, quotations, job sheets, test results, gas safety records, commissioning records and warranty registrations.
- Landlord and tenant details: where we carry out a landlord gas safety check, the landlord's or agent's name and address, the property address, and the name and contact details of the tenant who gives us access. Gas safety records name the landlord or agent and the property.
- Payment and account information: invoices, amounts paid and payment references. We do not keep full card details. If you pay by bank transfer, we receive the information your bank includes with the payment.
- Communications: emails, messages and our notes of phone calls with you.
- Information about vulnerability: if you choose to tell us, for example, that an elderly or unwell person in the home has no heating, we record this so we can prioritise and plan the visit. This may include information about health. We use it only for that purpose.
Information from others
We may receive your details from a landlord, letting agent, property factor or other person who books work on your behalf, for example when you are a tenant and we need to arrange access. We may receive information from your insurer or loss adjuster when work relates to an insurance claim.
You do not have to give us personal information, but if you do not, we may not be able to give you a quote, carry out work or meet our legal obligations, such as issuing a gas safety record.
3. This website, cookies and server logs
This website does not have contact forms, accounts or chat, and it does not use cookies, analytics, advertising, tracking pixels, social media plugins or embedded third-party content such as maps or videos. Fonts and images are served from our own website. Clicking a phone number or email address simply opens your own phone or email app.
Like all websites, our hosting provider's servers automatically record technical information when a page is requested: your IP address, the date and time, the page requested, the referring page, and your browser and device type. These server logs are used only to deliver the website, keep it secure, and investigate faults and attacks. We do not use them to identify visitors or build profiles.
Because the site sets no cookies and uses no similar technologies, we do not show a cookie banner. If that ever changes, we will update this policy and ask for your consent where the law requires it.
4. How we use information and our lawful bases
Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of personal information. We rely on the following:
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Answering your enquiry, giving advice and preparing a quote | Steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| Booking, carrying out and completing work, including access arrangements and follow-up visits | Performance of a contract with you; where a landlord or agent books the work, our legitimate interest in carrying out the work we have been engaged to do |
| Issuing gas safety records, commissioning checklists and other safety documentation, and following the gas industry unsafe situations procedure | Legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in protecting people's safety |
| Registering installations and product warranties with manufacturers and, where required, with Gas Safe Register | Performance of a contract; legal obligation where registration is required by law |
| Invoicing, taking payment and recovering unpaid amounts | Performance of a contract; our legitimate interest in being paid |
| Keeping accounting and tax records | Legal obligation |
| Keeping job records to deal with questions, complaints, warranty matters and legal claims | Our legitimate interest in defending our business and dealing fairly with customers |
| Recording information about vulnerability or health that you give us | Your explicit consent, or, where someone's safety is at risk and consent cannot be given, protecting their vital interests |
| Operating and securing this website and our email | Our legitimate interest in running a secure website and business |
| Complying with requests from regulators, the police or courts | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and concluded they are not overridden. You can ask us for more information about this assessment.
Marketing. We do not send marketing emails, newsletters or texts, and we do not sell, rent or trade personal information. If we ever wish to send marketing, we will only do so in line with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which means with your consent or, for existing customers, with a clear chance to opt out at the time and in every message.
Automated decisions. We do not make decisions about you by automated means, and we do not profile you.
5. Who we share information with
We share personal information only where needed for the purposes above:
- Hosting and email: Hostinger, which hosts this website and our email. It processes data on our behalf under a data processing agreement.
- Telephone and IT providers that carry our calls and store our business records, acting on our behalf.
- Manufacturers and registration bodies: boiler, appliance and equipment manufacturers when we register warranties, and Gas Safe Register when an installation must be notified.
- Suppliers: merchants delivering parts or equipment to the job address.
- The person who booked the work: for example, the landlord, letting agent or factor who instructed us, who will receive the gas safety record or job report for their property.
- Gas network operator: where an appliance or installation is immediately dangerous and the responsible person refuses to allow it to be made safe, the gas industry procedure requires us to report it to the gas transporter (in central Scotland, SGN).
- Professional advisers and insurers: our accountants, legal advisers and insurers, where necessary.
- Debt recovery: a debt collection agency or solicitor, if an invoice remains unpaid.
- Authorities: HM Revenue and Customs, the Health and Safety Executive, the police, courts or other public bodies where the law requires it.
- A buyer of our business, if the business or its assets are sold, under the same protections as this policy.
6. Transfers outside the UK
Our hosting and email provider may store or process data in the European Economic Area, which the UK recognises as providing adequate protection. If personal information is transferred anywhere else, we make sure it is protected by an adequacy decision or by appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses. Contact us for details.
7. How long we keep information
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Enquiries and quotes that do not lead to work | 12 months from our last contact |
| Customer, job, invoice and payment records | 6 years from the end of the financial year in which the work was completed |
| Gas safety records, commissioning records and records of unsafe situations | 6 years from the date of the record |
| Information about vulnerability or health | Until the job is complete, then deleted unless you ask us to keep it for future visits |
| Emails and call notes | As for the job they relate to, or 12 months if there is no job |
| Website server logs | Kept by our hosting provider for a short period for security and fault-finding, normally no more than 90 days |
| Information relevant to a complaint or legal claim | Until the matter is resolved and any time limit for further claims has passed |
At the end of the period, information is securely deleted or destroyed.
8. How we protect information
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures, including password-protected and encrypted devices, multi-factor authentication on email and business accounts where available, limited access on a need-to-know basis, and secure disposal of paper records. Keys and access codes you give us are kept separately from address details. This website is served only over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).
No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to you, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office as the law requires and, where the risk is high, tell you without undue delay.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- be informed about how we use your personal information (this policy);
- access the personal information we hold about you and receive a copy;
- rectification of information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
- erasure of your information in certain circumstances, for example where we no longer need it;
- restriction of our use of your information in certain circumstances;
- data portability: to receive information you gave us, where we use it under a contract or consent and by automated means, in a structured, commonly used format;
- object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and to object at any time to direct marketing;
- withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent, without affecting what we did before you withdrew it.
Some rights do not apply in all circumstances. For example, we must keep tax records and gas safety records for the periods above even if you ask us to delete them, and we will explain if this is the case.
To use any of these rights, email or phone us using the details in section 1. We may need to confirm your identity. We will respond within one month, which can be extended by up to two further months for complex requests, in which case we will tell you why. There is normally no fee.
10. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you the outcome without undue delay.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection:
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Helpline: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
11. Other information
Children. Our services and this website are not aimed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children except where a child's details are incidentally recorded as an occupant of a property where we work.
Links. This website links to a small number of official websites, such as the Information Commissioner's Office. Their privacy practices are their own.
Changes to this policy. We will update this policy when our practices or the law change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. Significant changes will be highlighted on this page.