Two years ago, Elliott Hines had a problem -he could not afford to live in London. 'The most basic flat cost £1,200 a month to rent, which meant I'd have to share,' says Elliott, 35, a visitor from Chicago who had found a post as a religious education teacher. 'And sharing meant one small bedroom and no living room.' Property guardianship is an arrangement whereby individuals are granted accommodation at about a third of the market rate in return for keeping the place in good condition Luckily for Elliott he came across an advertisement in the small ads of a paper.