Spotlight on: Mark Muldoon – our guardian and relationship coordinator

Property guardian of nine years and Dot Dot Dot guardian for one and a half of those, our relationship coordinator, Mark, delves into the detail of why guardianship works for him. From being able to live in an octagon-shaped turret bedroom in Notting Hill, to meeting like-minded people, he loves the exciting opportunities opened up by property guardianship. Mark walks us through why he’s not quite ready to hang up his property guardian hat just yet…

It’s been a pleasure seeing Dot Dot Dot turn ten this year. For me personally, it also means this is my ninth year as a property guardian, as well as my fourth year of actually working for the organisation. At first I was in our field team for a year – out working in a different neighbourhood every day – and since then I’ve been one of our relationship coordinators, which sort of means I do the day-to-day management of the buildings.

I haven’t been a Dot Dot Dot guardian all this time, I should point that out. I was with a couple of those other companies at first. Guardianships always appealed: without them perfectly good buildings would be sitting empty. Why not let people live there for less money than they’d otherwise be paying?

People often ask me how I found living with those other property guardian companies. They were definitely ‘hands off’, I tell them – it wasn’t easy to get hold of someone when you had an issue – although the one time when things were seriously bad, fair play: they were great.

Part of the appeal has definitely been the buildings themselves. I like buildings and I like London. I have very fond memories of the former glass and lead factory in Farringdon that hadn’t had its interiors altered since the 1920s, the former lawyers office in Chancery Lane, and my octagon-shaped turret bedroom looking out over Notting Hill. I loved living in these buildings and I loved living in these neighbourhoods – they felt like exciting opportunities made possible by property guardianships. It’s usually a more sociable form of housing too – I’ve met excellent like minded people. It’s something Dot Dot Dot actively tries to create: just about every neighbourhood we work in has a WhatsApp group to allow guardians to say hello, help each other out and meet up, if they want to.

I love my Dot Dot Dot flat too, of course. It’s very comfortable and after all these years of sharing I’m now living on my own, which I’ve managed to really enjoy despite a certain global pandemic making me initially question the timing. Those lockdowns – plus living alone – meant that, for the first time, I’ve spent ages decorating the flat exactly how I’d want my home to be. Living with Dot Dot Dot does also mean workmates come round and inspect my flat once a month – actually a nice treat in the middle of a working-from-home day when you happen to like everybody you work with!

I hope I’ll have this flat for a while yet, but I’m not sure what will come next after it. After nine years as a guardian, I like to think I’m pretty at ease with not knowing. Maybe another incredible opportunity will come up? I wouldn’t yet say no to another mad central London industrial space, put it that way…

Read more stories from our 10 great guardians who we’re highlighting as part of our tenth birthday celebrations.