Privacy Notice
This notice explains what The Loft Ranger does with the details you give us when you contact us, use the website chat, or book a free quotation visit, and the choices you have.
In short: we use your details to answer you and to arrange and carry out work you ask for. We do not sell them, we do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not send marketing because you asked for a quote.
Who we are
The Loft Ranger is a loft insulation, boarding and ladder business based in Southampton and working across Hampshire. We decide how your information is used, which makes us the “controller” under UK data protection law.
- Business: To be confirmed: whether The Loft Ranger is a sole trader or a limited company, the legal name, and (for a company) the company number and registered office.
- ICO registration: To be confirmed: the data protection fee registration number.
- Privacy questions: email Ben@theloftranger.co.uk or call 07305 297614.
We are a small business and do not have a Data Protection Officer; the owner deals with privacy questions personally.
What we collect
When you use the Contact us form
Your name, email address, phone number if you give one, the topic you choose and your message.
When you use the website chat
The chat answers from a list of approved answers. Nothing you type is stored by us unless you choose Speak to someone: then we keep your name, email address, phone number if given, your message, and the questions and answers in that chat so the team can see what you asked. While the chat is open your browser keeps the conversation in temporary session storage (see Cookies).
When you book a quotation visit
The services you are interested in; the property address; property type, approximate loft size, existing insulation and storage plans if you tell us; your name, email address and phone number; how you prefer to be contacted; the visit time you choose; and any notes about access or availability. If you choose to add photographs of your loft, they are sent with your request, stored privately and seen only by our team. We remove location and other hidden details from each photograph, and delete any photograph you add but never send.
If you become a customer
Details of the quotation, the work we agree and carry out, payments and invoices, and our correspondence with you.
Technical information
To stop abuse of our forms we record a one-way scrambled (“hashed”) form of the internet address a form was sent from, not the address itself, along with when it was sent. We do not use analytics or advertising tools.
Information we ask you not to send
We do not need health or other sensitive information. If you mention something like a mobility need so we can arrange a visit sensibly, we use it only for that. To be confirmed: how health or access-needs information volunteered by customers is handled (UK GDPR Article 9 condition).
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use. We do not rely on your consent for the uses below, because you have asked us to do something and we need your details to do it. The tick box on our forms confirms you have been told how your details will be used; it is not a request for consent.
| What we do | Lawful basis (UK GDPR Article 6) |
|---|---|
| Reply to your question, by email or phone | Legitimate interests: answering people who contact us. Where you are asking about work, also steps you have asked us to take before a contract (6(1)(b)). |
| Arrange your quotation visit, send confirmation and reminders, and contact you about it | Steps you have asked us to take before entering into a contract (6(1)(b)). |
| Prepare a quotation, carry out the work, take payment and handle any guarantee or after-care | Performing our contract with you (6(1)(b)). |
| Keep invoices and accounting records | Legal obligation (6(1)(c)) under tax and accounting law. |
| Keep one record per customer, linking your enquiries, chats and bookings, and spotting duplicate records | Legitimate interests: accurate records and not asking you for the same details twice. |
| Protect our website and forms from spam and misuse, and keep a record of who changed what in our systems | Legitimate interests: security and preventing misuse. |
| Deal with complaints and legal claims | Legitimate interests: establishing or defending legal claims. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests you can object (see Your rights).
How chats, messages and bookings are kept together
We keep one customer record for each person, so the team can see your whole history in one place. When you contact us again with the same email address and name, your new message or booking is added to your existing record. Details you add later (a phone number, an address) fill gaps; we do not overwrite what you told us before.
Two people can share an email address or phone number, for example in one household, so a shared email with a different name, or a shared phone number, is not joined automatically. A member of our team checks and only combines records that clearly belong to the same person. Entering an email address on our website never shows you anything we hold about anyone.
Messages we exchange with you by email are stored with that record. Each booking keeps the address of the property visited.
Marketing
We do not currently send marketing emails or texts, and asking for a quote or booking a visit never signs you up for them. Messages about your enquiry or booking (such as confirmations and reminders) are not marketing.
If we offer news or offers in future, it will be a separate, optional choice that is not ticked in advance, with email and text recorded separately, and you will be able to stop at any time.
Information outside the UK
We aim to keep your information in the UK. Some providers may store or access data in other countries; where they do, the transfer is protected by UK adequacy regulations or by contract terms approved for UK data (such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum). To be confirmed: which providers transfer data outside the UK, where to, and which safeguard applies, once the email and hosting providers are chosen.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it for the reasons above. The periods for enquiries, bookings, completed work, invoices, messages, technical records and backups are set out on How long we keep information.
Keeping it safe
Only our own team can see customer records, after signing in; administrators use two-step verification, and each person sees only what their role needs. Changes are logged. Our forms are protected against automated misuse.
Your rights
You can ask us, free of charge, to:
- give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong or incomplete;
- delete your information, where we no longer need it or have no other legal reason to keep it (for example, we must keep invoices for a set time);
- restrict how we use it while a concern is looked into;
- stop using it where we rely on legitimate interests, unless we have a strong reason to continue;
- give you the information you provided in a common electronic format, or send it to someone else.
Email Ben@theloftranger.co.uk or call 07305 297614. We may need to check who you are. We reply within one month, or tell you within that month if we need up to two more months for a complex request.
Questions and complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please tell us first using the details above. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we are doing about it.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113.
Notice version 2026-10-28-draft. If we change this notice in a way that matters, we will update the date above.