Privacy Policy - Lee Storage

Effective date: This Privacy Policy applies to all Lee Storage customers in the area and explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal data in connection with our storage services.

Lee Storage is committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner. We respect your privacy and work to ensure that any personal data we process is used only for legitimate business purposes and protected with appropriate safeguards.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This Privacy Policy applies to all Lee Storage customers in area, including prospective customers, current customers, former customers, visitors, contractors, and anyone who communicates with us or uses our storage facilities and related services.

By using our services, you acknowledge that we may process your personal data as described in this policy. Please read this document carefully to understand your rights and how we handle your information.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect personal data directly from you, automatically when you interact with our services, or from third parties where lawful and appropriate. The categories of information we may collect include:

Identity information: name, date of birth, and other identifiers needed to verify your identity.
Contact details: postal address, email address, telephone number, and other communication details.
Account and rental details: storage unit number, contract dates, payment status, service preferences, and customer records.
Payment information: billing records, transaction details, and partial payment data necessary to process fees and manage accounts.
Access and security information: entry logs, CCTV footage, device or access code records, and incident reports where applicable.
Correspondence: emails, messages, complaints, requests, and notes from conversations with our team.
Technical data: where relevant, IP address, browser type, device data, and cookies or similar technologies used on our digital systems.

We only collect information that is necessary for the operation of our services, compliance with legal obligations, and the protection of our business, customers, and premises.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To create and manage customer accounts and storage agreements.
To verify identity and prevent fraud, misuse, or unauthorized access.
To process payments, maintain financial records, and handle billing matters.
To provide access to storage units and maintain site security.
To communicate with you about your account, service updates, and policy changes.
To respond to enquiries, complaints, disputes, and requests.
To meet legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, and insurance obligations.
To protect our rights, property, staff, customers, and facilities.

We do not use your personal data for unrelated purposes without first ensuring that such use is permitted by law.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR and/or EU GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, Lee Storage may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to enter into or perform our storage agreement with you, including account setup, service delivery, billing, and customer support.

Legal Obligation

We may process data to comply with legal requirements, such as tax laws, accounting rules, fraud prevention, recordkeeping, and law enforcement requests.

Legitimate Interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Examples include site security, CCTV monitoring, protecting property, preventing fraud, and managing service quality.

Consent

In limited cases, we may ask for your consent, for example where required for certain optional communications or marketing activities. If we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

Vital Interests and Public Task

These bases are generally unlikely to apply to Lee Storage, but they may be relevant in exceptional circumstances involving serious emergencies or legal authority.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who assist us in operating our business. These parties act as processors or, in some cases, independent controllers. We ensure that data sharing is limited, lawful, and subject to appropriate contractual and security safeguards.

Examples of processors may include:

Payment service providers who help process transactions securely.
IT and hosting providers who support our systems, data storage, and communications.
Security service providers who help manage surveillance, alarms, and site protection.
Accounting and administrative service providers who assist with invoicing, reporting, and recordkeeping.
Professional advisers such as lawyers, auditors, insurers, and consultants where necessary.

We may also disclose information where required by law, court order, regulatory authority, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lee Storage, our customers, employees, or others.

Where a processor handles your data on our behalf, they may only process it according to our instructions and must implement appropriate security measures.

6. International Transfers

If any of our service providers store or process personal data outside the UK or EEA, we will take steps required by data protection law to ensure that your information remains adequately protected. This may include using approved contractual clauses and assessing the legal environment in the destination country.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law. Retention periods depend on the type of data, the nature of our relationship with you, and legal or operational requirements.

Customer contract and account records: retained for the duration of the agreement and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by law, including accounting and tax obligations.
Security records and access logs: retained only as long as needed for site security, incident management, and legal compliance.
Enquiries and correspondence: retained for the time necessary to resolve matters and maintain business records.

When personal data is no longer needed, we will delete it securely, anonymise it, or otherwise dispose of it in a lawful and safe manner.

8. Security of Your Information

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against unauthorized access, loss, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff training, and regular review of security practices.

While we take data protection seriously, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a data breach occurs and we are required by law to notify you or a regulator, we will do so in accordance with applicable rules.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location and the legal basis for processing, you may have the following rights under GDPR:

Right of access: to obtain a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure: to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing: to ask us to limit how we use your data in specific situations.
Right to data portability: to receive certain data in a structured, commonly used format.
Right to object: to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to raise a concern with your local data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed. We encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue directly.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children, and we do not offer services directed at minors. If we become aware that we have collected a child’s personal data without appropriate authority, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

11. Marketing Communications

Where permitted by law, we may send you service-related messages or limited marketing communications. You can object to direct marketing at any time. We will not send marketing messages where you have opted out or where consent is required and has not been given.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or data protection practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated to you.

13. Summary of Our Commitments

In summary, Lee Storage processes personal data only where we have a lawful basis, uses it for clearly defined purposes, keeps it only as long as necessary, and shares it only with trusted processors or where the law requires it. We aim to treat every customer’s data with care, accountability, and respect.

Your privacy matters to us, and we are committed to protecting it in a way that is consistent with GDPR principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality.