Privacy policy

Introduction

Welcome to the Metropolitan privacy policy.

Please note that, in this privacy policy, reference to “we”, “us”, “our” and “Metropolitan” means Independent Community Heating Limited, trading as “Metropolitan”, registered number 05366042, whose registered address is: Synergy House Windmill Avenue, Woolpit, Bury St. Edmunds, England, IP30 9UP.

In this privacy policy, references to the “Data Protection Legislation” means applicable law from time to time in respect of the processing of personal data and privacy, including the Data Protection Act 2018, the UK GDPR (as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. For the purposes of the Data Protection Legislation, Independent Community Heating Limited is a “data controller” in respect of its processing of personal data which it may collect or receive about you.

We respect your right to privacy and take our responsibilities regarding security and privacy under the Data Protection Legislation seriously. This privacy policy covers our use of your personal data which we may collect or receive about you, including personal data which we may collect via use of our website https://www.metropolitan-uk.co.uk/ (the/our “Website”).

We have developed this privacy policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal data, so please read it carefully before using our Website or signing up for our services.

About Metropolitan

Metropolitan is a leading-edge heating and hot water services provider based in the UK. Please contact our sales office (please see the “Contact Us” section on our Website) to find out if you are able to receive our services in your area, or alternatively check on our Website.

Definition of Personal Data

This privacy policy has been created to explain to you the way in which we use your “personal data”. When we refer to “personal data” in this privacy policy, we mean information which identifies you as an individual, or is capable of doing so. This may include information which tells us something about you as an individual, for example your name, address or telephone number. We are committed to providing you with a professional and personalised service whilst at the same time safeguarding your privacy and protecting your personal data from unauthorised uses or disclosures.

“Sensitive personal data” is a particular category of information and is any “personal data” which concerns racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health or conditions, sexual life, commission or alleged commission of any offence or any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.

Any sensitive personal data that we process will be processed in accordance with this privacy policy and the Data Protection Legislation. We will not collect and/or use any sensitive personal data without your explicit consent or where we are otherwise permitted to do so pursuant to the Data Protection Legislation.

Personal Data that We Collect and/or Receive

When you visit the Website or order any of our services (including when you complete our property occupation and contact forms), you may be asked to provide information about yourself including your name, contact details (being your home address, email address and telephone number) and payment information such as credit or debit card information and billing address. We may also collect and/or receive information about your usage of our services and the Website from the content you post to the Website, the e-mails or letters you send to us, and information collected via cookies. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for more information about the use of cookies on our Website.

As described above, in some instances, we may need your credit/debit card details to charge for the services. All financial transactions are secured by SSL encryption to offer secure communications of such data to and from our Website. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will take steps to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal data transmitted over the internet, including to the Website, and any transmission is at your own risk.

We may also collect information from you when you sign up to receive our services, and we may continue to collect and/or process personal data from you in the course of providing those services. For example, if we provide heat supply services to you or the property which you own or occupy, we may process personal data about you such as your name, address, usage information and billing and payment information (including details relating to non-payment). We work closely with our group companies and third parties (including, for example, our business partners) who may collect personal data from you and pass it on to us. Once we are holding your personal data, we will only handle such data in accordance with this privacy policy and the Data Protection Legislation

Use of Your Personal Data

We may use your personal data in order to:

(a) provide our services, including services available through the Website;

(b) bill you;

(d) contact you where necessary about our services;

(e) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you or a related party; and

(f) provide you with access to the relevant parts of the Website,

and for any other purposes set out in our Cookie Policy.

We may also use your personal data for the purposes of statistical analysis and to help us prevent fraud.

We primarily process your personal data on the basis that it is necessary for our legitimate business interests in fulfilling the above purposes. In some instances, we will process your personal data on the basis that it is necessary for our compliance with legal obligations or to allow us to perform or enter into a contract with you.

In some instances, we may rely on your express consent to use your personal data, but we will let you know (and give you the chance to withdraw consent) if we do. If you have provided your consent to us processing your personal data in a particular way but you later change your mind, please let us know by contacting us using the details set out in the “Privacy Support” section below and/or changing your account settings on the Website (where applicable).

In particular, where you have consented at the time we collected your personal data or where we otherwise have a right to do so, we may use your personal data to let you know about our products and services that may be of interest to you and/or inform you about important changes or developments to the Website or our services, by post, telephone, mobile messaging (e.g. SMS, MMS etc.) as well as by e-mail. You may opt out of receiving marketing emails from us by following the instructions outlined in any marketing email.

Sharing your Personal Data

In order to provide our services, we may share your personal data with our employees, officers, agents, suppliers, subcontractors or service providers (such as our payment provider, who processes your payments on our behalf) and our group companies (Metropolitan is part of the BUUK Infrastructure group of companies). We may also share your personal data with credit reference or fraud prevention agencies. If you are a tenant of a property which we supply services to, we may share certain details with your landlord, such as material non-compliance with our agreement with you (e.g. failure to pay for our services). Disclosure to such recipients will occur only where we have a lawful basis to do so. We require these recipients to treat your personal data securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation.

If you have consented, we may allow carefully selected third parties, including marketing and advertising companies, or our business partners (including other members of our corporate group) to contact you occasionally about services that may be of interest to you. They may contact you by telephone, post, SMS as well as by e-mail. If you change your mind about being contacted by these companies in the future, please let us know by contacting us using the details set out in the “Privacy Support” section below and/or changing your account settings on the Website (where applicable). You may also opt out of receiving any marketing communications you receive by following the instructions outlined in any of these communications.

We may also provide third parties with aggregate information about our users. You will not be personally identifiable from this aggregate information and, therefore, it will not be “personal data” for the purposes of the Data Protection Legislation.

If our business enters into a joint venture with, purchases or is sold to or merges with another business entity, your personal data may be disclosed or transferred to the target company, our new business partners or owners or their advisors.

We may use the personal data that you provide to us if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with (and/or where we believe we are under a duty to comply with) any legal obligation; or in order to enforce our contracts; or to protect our rights, property, or safety or the rights, property, or safety of our customers, employees or others. This includes exchanging personal data with other companies and other organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and prevention.

The personal data may also be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the United Kingdom (“UK”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the UK who work for us or for one of our suppliers. This includes staff engaged in, among other things, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. We will only transfer your personal data (a) to recipients in countries that are the subject of an adequacy decision under the Data Protection Legislation; or (b) to recipients in other countries if we have provided adequate safeguards for your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation (such as the contractual safeguards specified in the Data Protection Legislation).

Call Recording

Please note that, subject to receiving your prior consent or us letting you know that we will do so, we may record inbound and outbound telephone calls made to and by our customer support centre for training and quality purposes. In addition, (and where we have received your consent to do so) in some instances we may be required to send call recordings to third parties for whom we sell products or services over the phone. This is so that they can monitor the quality of our calls when selling their products or services.

Security and Retention

We take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to protect your personal data from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. We will only keep your personal data for as long as we reasonably require and, in any event, only for as long as Data Protection Legislation allows.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will take steps to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal data transmitted over the internet, including to the Website, and any transmission is at your own risk.

Where you create or are provided with password and user details, you are responsible for keeping these confidential. You should not share your password with anyone. We will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to the Website).

Your Rights in Relation to Your Personal Data

In certain circumstances and subject to certain exemptions, you have the following rights in relation to the personal data that we hold about you:

(a) the right to be informed about how we are using your personal data;

(b) the right to access the personal data that we hold about you;

(d) the right to ask us to erase or stop processing any personal data we hold about you where there is otherwise no longer a legal ground for us to hold it;

(e) the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data;

(f) the right to request that we transfer certain personal data;

(g) the right to withdraw consent to any consent-based processing at any time; and

(h) rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details set out in the “Privacy Support” section below. The supply of appropriate evidence of your identity may be required when exercising your rights.

Should you have any queries or complaints in relation to how we use your personal data, please contact us using the details set out in the “Privacy Support” section below. Should you wish to take any complaints or queries further, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (which is the supervisory body in the UK) regarding such issues.

Please ensure that any personal data you provide us with is accurate and complete and you notify us of any changes to your personal data as soon as possible so that we can update our records.

Third Party Websites

Our Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these websites or their related policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data via these websites.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time, at our sole discretion, effective immediately upon the posting of a new version on our Website. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version.

Privacy Support

Should you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, or if you have any questions or concerns about the way in which we handle your personal data, please contact us at Synergy House, Woolpit Business Park, Woolpit, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP30 9UP.; or email via company.secretary@bu-uk.co.uk.

Alternatively, you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (which is the supervisory body in the UK).