Privacy policy.

 

Last updated: October 2026

This policy explains what personal information Format Designs and Format Build collect, why we use it, how long we keep it and the rights you have. We are a building and interior design business based in Buntingford, Hertfordshire.

Who we are

The data controllers responsible for your information are:

  • Format Designs Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 11202078

  • Format Build Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 13652894

Our address is Studio 2, Watermill Industrial Estate, Buntingford, SG9 9US.

For any question about this policy or your information, contact Sara Willcox at sara@formatdesigns.co.uk or on 01763 290650.

Information we collect

  • Enquiries: your name, email address, phone number, address and details of your project when you email us (info@formatdesigns.co.uk or info@formatbuild.co.uk), call us or contact us through the website.

  • Clients: contact details, property address, project information, drawings, quotes, contracts, invoices and payment records when we work for you.

  • Suppliers and subcontractors: names, business contact details and payment details.

  • Website visitors: technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit (see Website and cookies below).

  • Planning registers: the name of a planning applicant, the property address, the planning reference and a description of the proposed work, taken from public registers published by local councils (see Letters to homeowners with planning applications below).

We do not buy contact lists, and we do not collect any special category information (such as health details) about you.

How we use your information and our legal basis

UK data protection law requires us to have a legal basis for each use of your information. These are ours:

Replying to enquiries and preparing quotes - Steps you ask us to take before entering a contract

Carrying out design and building work, managing projects and taking payment - Performance of our contract with you

Keeping accounting, tax and building records - Legal obligation

Sending one introductory letter to planning applicants - Legitimate interests (telling local homeowners about relevant services)

Running, securing and improving our website - Legitimate interests

Analytics cookies - Your consent, given through our cookie banner

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced our interests against yours and keep the impact on you low.

Letters to homeowners with planning applications

From time to time we write to homeowners in Hertfordshire and Essex who have submitted a planning application, to introduce our building and interior design services.

  • Where the information comes from: public planning registers published by local councils. We use the applicant's name, the property address, the planning reference and a short description of the proposed work.

  • What we do with it: send a single letter by post. We do not use it for email, phone or text marketing, and we do not send follow-up letters.

  • Legal basis: legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)).

  • How long we keep it: if you don't get in touch, we delete your details within 6 months of sending the letter.

  • Opting out: email sara@formatdesigns.co.uk, call 01763 290650 or write to us, and we will not contact you again. We keep only your name and address on a do-not-contact list so we don't write to you by mistake.

Website and cookies

Our website is hosted by Squarespace. When you visit, Squarespace records technical information such as your IP address, browser type, the pages you view and the site that referred you. This keeps the site secure and working.

COOKIES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES WE USE:

Squarespace and our other service providers may use cookies (both session cookies and persistent cookies) to analyse trends, administer our Site, track your movements around our Site, better understand how you interact with our Site, determine interest in particular content and monitor aggregate usage by visitors and online traffic routing. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual and aggregated basis. You may be able to instruct your browser, by changing its option, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the online services you visit. You may also remove persistent cookies by following your web browser’s help file directions. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of our Site or all functionality of our Site.

Squarespace and our other service providers may also use “pixel tags,” “web beacons,” “clear GIFs,” or similar means in connection with our Site and HTML-formatted e-mail messages to, among other things, track the actions of users, to determine the success of marketing campaigns and to compile aggregate statistics about Site usage and response rates. This information is collected anonymously, in a manner that does not personally identify you.

This website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.

Squarespace's own use of data is covered by its privacy policy at squarespace.com/privacy.

Who we share it with

We never sell your information. We share it only when needed to run our business or deliver your project:

  • subcontractors, suppliers and consultants working on your project (for example architects, engineers or building control)

  • our accountant, bank and payment providers

  • IT, email and website providers, including Squarespace

  • HMRC, insurers, legal advisers or the police, where the law requires it or to protect our legal rights

Some of our IT and website providers, such as Squarespace, may store data outside the UK. Where they do, they use legal safeguards approved under UK law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

We keep your information secure using password-protected systems and limit access to the people who need it.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that don't go ahead - 12 months from our last contact

Client project records, contracts and invoices - 6 years after the project ends (12 years where a contract is signed as a deed)

Planning applicant details (letters) - 6 months after the letter is sent, unless you get in touch

Do-not-contact list - For as long as we send letters, so we never write to you again

When information is no longer needed, we delete it or destroy it securely.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the information we hold about you

  • have inaccurate information corrected

  • have your information deleted

  • restrict how we use your information

  • object to us using your information, including an absolute right to object to direct marketing

  • receive information you gave us in a portable format

  • withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent

To use any of these rights, contact us at sara@formatdesigns.co.uk or 01763 290650. We will reply within one month and there is normally no charge.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please contact us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Security and data breaches

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your information, but no method of sending or storing data online is completely secure. If a data breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours and tell you without undue delay, by email, letter or phone.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top.

fonts

This website uses font files from Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts. To properly display this site to you, servers where the font files are stored may receive personal information about you, including:

  • Information about your browser, network, or device

  • Your IP address

THIRD PARTY PRODUCTS +SITES:

Our site contains links to, and/or content from, third-party websites and online services. The fact that we link to a website or display an advertisement or other third-party content or product is not an endorsement, authorisation or representation of our affiliation with any of those third parties, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices.

This Privacy Policy applies only to our Site and your interactions with those third-party services are governed by the privacy policy of the third party providing it. We do not exercise control over third-party websites, products or services. Other websites, products and services may place their own cookies or other files on your computer and/or collect data or solicit Personal Information from you. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and other terms of such third parties before using their services.

BUSINESS TRANSFER:

Circumstances may arise where, whether for strategic or other business reasons, we may sell, transfer or otherwise disclose some or all of our assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy. It’s our practice to seek appropriate protection for Your Information in those types of transactions.

OUR POLICY TOWARDS CHILDREN:

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under 13 via our Services, and we do not target our Services to children under 13. We encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected Personal Information from a child under the age of 13, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such information from our databases. If you are the parent of a child under the age of 13 and have a concern regarding your child’s information on our Site, please contact us at sara@formatdesigns.co.uk