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Privacy policy

Last updated 4 November 2026.

This privacy policy explains what we do with the personal information you give us through this website. It covers motortradeaccounting.co.uk and any enquiry that starts here.

Who we are

This website is run by Motor Trade Accounting. We are the data controller for the information described below, which means we decide how it is used and we are responsible for looking after it.

We will give you a postal address on request.

What we collect

When you contact us through this site, we collect:

  • your name;
  • your email address and, if you give it, your phone number;
  • your business name and the type of motor business you run, when you tell us;
  • what you write in the message: what you need help with, and anything else you add;
  • the date and time of the enquiry.

That is all the form asks for. We do not ask for anything special, such as health information, and you should not send it. We take no payment details through this website.

Our website is measured with privacy-friendly analytics that count visits without identifying anybody. That produces totals, not a record about you.

Why we use it, and our lawful basis

We use what you send us to:

  • Reply to your enquiry and arrange a conversation with a specialist accountant. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: you asked us to get in touch, and we cannot answer without your details. We only use them for the reason you sent them.
  • Provide the support you go on to agree. Once you agree to go ahead, our lawful basis is performance of a contract with you.
  • Keep the records we are required to keep. Invoices and client records are kept because we have a legal obligation to keep them under tax and anti-money laundering law.

We do not sell your information, and we do not add you to a marketing list off the back of an enquiry. If we ever want to send you marketing, we will ask first, and you can stop it at any time.

Who else sees it

We use a small number of suppliers who handle information on our behalf, under contract, and only on our instructions:

  • Our website platform provider builds and hosts this website and keeps your enquiry for us in our customer hub. It is our data processor: it only uses your details to run these things for us. Its servers are in the EU, and we will tell you who it is and which suppliers it uses on request.
  • Postmark sends the emails that come from this website through our platform provider, such as the one telling us you have been in touch and any email confirming your enquiry or booking. Postmark may process them in the United States, under UK-approved safeguards for data sent abroad.
  • Our email provider carries the emails we send and receive ourselves, including our reply to you.

The specialist accountant handling your enquiry. So that a specialist motor trade accountant can contact you about what you need, we share your enquiry with the accountant who will be dealing with it. Beyond that, we share your details only where the law requires it.

Checking enquiries for spam

Every enquiry sent through this website is checked automatically for spam on our platform provider's servers. The check looks at how the form was filled in (for example, whether it was sent faster than a person could type it), at the name and message, and at whether the same message or sender has been sent to several other websites the same provider runs. It uses no AI. One that looks like spam is set aside rather than deleted. We can still read it and put it back, and it is deleted after 30 days. The check has no legal effect on you, or anything of similar weight. If you think yours was caught by mistake, get in touch and a person will look at it.

Cookies

This website sets no tracking cookies at all. Our analytics are cookieless: they count a visit without storing anything on your device and without building a profile of you. That is why you are not asked to accept anything when you arrive.

If you arrive by clicking an advert, your browser keeps the reference from that link in its own storage (not a cookie), so it can go with an enquiry you send. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes it.

How long we keep it

We keep information for no longer than we need it. In practice that means:

  • Enquiries that do not go any further: 12 months, then deleted.
  • Client records: 6 years after the work ends, which is the period tax and accounting records must cover.
  • Email correspondence: 6 years, in line with the above.
  • Website analytics: totals only, with nothing that identifies you, kept for 2 years.
  • Enquiries and bookings set aside as spam: deleted automatically after 30 days.
  • Our platform provider's record of emails sent from this website: 90 days.

If we stop using our platform provider and close our account, it deletes everything it holds for us within 30 days.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

  • be told what we do with your information, which is what this page is for;
  • see a copy of the information we hold about you;
  • have it corrected if it is wrong or incomplete;
  • have it deleted, where we no longer need it for the reasons above;
  • restrict how we use it while a question about it is sorted out;
  • object to us using it, including for any marketing;
  • have it moved to you or another provider in a portable form.

Apart from the spam check above, we make no decision about you by automated means.

To use any of these rights, get in touch using the details above. We will respond within one month, and it costs you nothing. We may ask you to confirm who you are first, so we do not hand your details to somebody else.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. Complaining to us first does not affect that right.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your information we will update this page and the date at the top of it.