Privacy notice
LAST UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2026
This notice explains what BillSnap does with personal information when you submit meter readings, receive utility charges, or contact us.
Who we are
BillSnap is a trading name of Lightning Estates Ltd. Where you are a tenant of a property managed by Lightning Estates, Lightning Estates Ltd is the data controller for your information. Where BillSnap is used by another letting agency, that agency is the controller and Lightning Estates Ltd acts as its processor under a written agreement.
You can contact us about anything in this notice at hello@billsnap.uk.
What we collect
| Identity and contact | Your name, email address and telephone number, provided by your letting agent when your tenancy is set up. |
|---|---|
| Tenancy details | The property and unit you occupy, and your tenancy start and end dates. |
| Meter photographs | Images you take of the meter serving your unit. These may incidentally include parts of the property. |
| Meter readings | The figure extracted from your photograph, the figure you confirmed, and the date and time of submission. |
| Consumption and charges | Units used over each period and the charge calculated from them. |
| Technical data | Sign-in records and basic technical information necessary to operate and secure the service. |
We do not collect payment card details, bank account details or any special category data through BillSnap.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
- To calculate and issue your utility charges. Necessary for the performance of your tenancy agreement.
- To keep evidence of readings. Our legitimate interest in being able to resolve a dispute about a charge, and yours in the same.
- To send reading reminders and charge notifications. Necessary for the performance of your tenancy agreement.
- To comply with our obligations on the resale of energy and water, and with tax and accounting requirements. Legal obligation.
- To keep the service secure and prevent misuse. Legitimate interest.
Automated reading of your photographs
When you submit a photograph, it is sent to Anthropic, an artificial intelligence provider, which returns the digits it reads from the meter. That figure is then shown to you for confirmation before anything is saved. No charge is ever calculated from a figure you have not confirmed, and no decision about you is made solely by automated means.
Anthropic processes the image to produce the reading and does not use it to train its models.
Who we share it with
- Your landlord, where the charge is raised on their behalf.
- Anthropic, for reading extraction as described above.
- Supabase, which hosts the application database and stored photographs.
- Our email provider, to deliver sign-in links, reminders and charge notifications.
- Professional advisers, or a court or regulator, where a charge is disputed or we are required to disclose.
We do not sell your information and we do not use it for marketing.
Where it is held
Data is held within the United Kingdom or European Economic Area wherever possible. Where a provider processes data outside that area, the transfer is covered by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or an adequacy decision.
How long we keep it
| Meter photographs | The length of your tenancy plus six years, because a charge may be questioned long after it was raised. |
|---|---|
| Readings and charges | Six years from the end of the tenancy, in line with our accounting obligations. |
| Contact details | Deleted or anonymised six years after your tenancy ends. |
| Sign-in records | Twelve months. |
Your rights
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected if it is wrong, to ask us to delete it, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to receive it in a portable format. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object and we will stop unless we have compelling grounds to continue.
To exercise any of these, email hello@billsnap.uk. We will respond within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would prefer the chance to put things right first.
Cookies
BillSnap uses only the cookies necessary to keep you signed in and to keep the service secure. There is no advertising or analytics tracking, so no consent banner is required.
Changes
If we change this notice we will update the date at the top, and tell you directly if the change is significant.