Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how First Choice Solar (a trading style of Renewable Energy Services Team Ltd) collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you visit our website, request a quote, complete one of our online or social media forms, or speak to us by phone. We are the “data controller” for this data under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We process personal data in accordance with the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), and applicable consumer protection and Financial Conduct Authority requirements.

1. Who we are

First Choice Solar is a trading style of Renewable Energy Services Team Ltd, registered in England & Wales (Company No: 11426161). Registered office: Elias House, Brymore Road, Canterbury, CT1 1HP. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 824643). We are a credit broker, not a lender, and offer finance facilities from a panel of lenders.

2. How we collect your data

We collect personal data in the following ways:

• Directly from you on our website — when you complete a quote funnel, enquiry form or booking request.
• From social media lead forms— if you complete an instant lead form on Facebook or Instagram (Meta Lead Ads), Meta passes us the details you submitted on that form, together with the identifier of the advert you responded to. Meta’s own handling of that data is governed by its privacy policy.
• By phone — when you call us or we call you back.
• Automatically — technical and marketing-attribution data collected as you browse, where you have consented to non-essential cookies (see section 7).

3. What data we collect

• Contact details — your first and last name, phone number and email address.
• Property and qualification details — postcode, county, property ownership status, roof details, your estimated monthly electricity bill, the system or package you are interested in, and the estimated savings figures we generate for you.
• Technical and attribution data — your IP address (stored in hashed form), device and browser information, a session identifier, pages viewed, and the campaign, source and referrer that brought you to us (UTM parameters and advertising click identifiers such as gclid, fbclid and ttclid, or a Meta lead identifier where you came via an instant form).
• Call records — a record of calls made and received, their outcome, and, where calls are recorded, the recording itself. You will be told at the start of a call if it is being recorded.
• Finance information — only where you ask us to explore finance options, and only to the extent needed to refer you to a lender.

4. How we use your data and our lawful basis

• To respond to your enquiry and arrange a free home survey — to take steps at your request before entering a contract, and our legitimate interests in responding to you.
• To supply, install and support your system — to perform our contract with you.
• To contact you by phone, email and SMS about solar products and services— on the basis of the consent you give on our forms, or the PECR “soft opt-in” where it applies (see section 6).
• To arrange finance options — where you ask us to, we share the relevant details with our panel of FCA-authorised lenders. We are a credit broker, not a lender.
• To measure and improve our advertising — on the basis of your consent to non-essential cookies and similar technologies (see sections 7 and 8).
• To improve, secure and troubleshoot our website and services — our legitimate interests in running an accurate, secure and effective business.
• To meet our legal and regulatory obligations — including tax, accounting, consumer protection and FCA requirements.

5. Legitimate interests

Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests include responding to enquiries, maintaining accurate business and installation records, providing aftersales support and warranty assistance, improving our products and customer experience, preventing fraud, training staff and monitoring service quality, and establishing or defending legal claims. We balance those interests against your rights and freedoms, and only process data where it is necessary, proportionate and reasonably expected. You may object to this processing at any time (see section 13).

6. Marketing and your PECR consent

We contact you for marketing by phone, email and SMS where you have given us consent on our forms, or where the PECR “soft opt-in” applies — that is, where you gave us your details while enquiring about our products or services and were given a clear opportunity to opt out. Soft opt-in only ever covers our own similar products and services, and every message includes a simple way to opt out.

We record your consent, and any withdrawal or objection. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing unsubscribe@firstchoicesolar.co.uk. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before you withdrew it. We do not sell your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies as described in our Cookie Policy. Strictly necessary cookies operate automatically. Non-essential cookies — including analytics, session-recording and advertising technologies — are only set where you have given consent through our cookie banner. You can change or withdraw your preferences at any time using the cookie preferences link in our footer.

8. Advertising, analytics and measurement

Subject to your cookie consent, we use analytics and advertising technologies provided by Google (Google Analytics and Google Ads), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, and Microsoft (Clarity, which records anonymised interaction data such as clicks and scrolling to help us improve page design).

To measure which adverts lead to genuine enquiries and appointments, we may share a limited set of data with these advertising platforms, including the advertising click or lead identifier associated with your visit and, where applicable, your email address or phone number in “hashed” form. Hashing converts the value into an irreversible string of characters so the platform can match it against its own records without us disclosing the underlying detail. We may also use this data to build audiences so that our adverts are shown to relevant people, or withheld from existing customers.

You can control much of this through your cookie preferences, and through the ad settings offered by Google, Meta and TikTok directly.

9. Lead scoring and automated processing

We score enquiries automatically — using information such as your energy bill band, property ownership and location — to help us prioritise follow-up and estimate which enquiries are likely to result in a suitable installation. This does not produce any decision with legal or similarly significant effects on you, and a member of our team is always involved in decisions about your enquiry and your quote. You have the right to object to this processing (see section 13).

10. Who we share your data with

We share your data with trusted service providers who process it on our behalf under written data-processing agreements, and only as necessary. These include:

• Hosting and infrastructure — our website host and our database provider, which stores enquiry data in the European Union.
• Customer relationship management and workflow — our CRM and the integration services that pass enquiries into it.
• Telephony — our outbound calling platform, which handles call connection, outcomes and any call recordings.
• Appointment booking — the scheduling tool used to book your free home survey.
• Analytics and advertising platforms — as described in section 8.
• Mapping and roof-assessment services — where you use our roof tool, your address or postcode is processed to retrieve imagery and solar-suitability data for your property.
• Installers and subcontractors — where needed to survey, install or service your system.
• Our panel of FCA-authorised lenders — only where you ask us to explore finance.
• Professional advisers and authorities — where required by law, in connection with legal proceedings, to prevent fraud, or in connection with a sale or restructuring of our business.

We can provide the identity of any specific processor on request. We do not sell your personal data.

11. International transfers

We store enquiry and customer data within the United Kingdom or European Economic Area wherever possible. Some of our advertising and analytics providers are based outside the UK, principally in the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards under the UK GDPR, which may include a UK adequacy regulation (such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework), the International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with additional contractual and organisational measures. You may request a copy of the relevant safeguards by contacting us.

12. How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected. Enquiries that do not become customers are retained for up to 24 months from your last interaction, after which they are deleted or anonymised. Customer records are retained for the duration of any warranty and for up to 6 years afterwards to meet tax, accounting and legal obligations. Call recordings are kept for a shorter period, appropriate to training, quality and dispute-resolution purposes. Where processing is based on consent, we retain the data until you withdraw that consent.

13. Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to:

• access a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate data corrected;
• have your data erased in certain circumstances;
• restrict how we use your data;
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to object to direct marketing at any time;
• receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, and have it transferred to another controller where technically feasible;
• withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent; and
• not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

To exercise any of these rights — including the right to erasure — email unsubscribe@firstchoicesolar.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

14. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access, including encryption in transit, access controls and hashing of certain identifiers. No transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take all reasonable steps to protect your data.

15. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we handle your data, please contact us first and we will do our best to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator for data protection, at ico.org.uk.

16. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Please check back occasionally to review any changes.

18. Contact us

For any privacy question or request, email hello@firstchoicesolar.co.uk or write to us at our registered office above.