A North Texas real estate broker who’s become known for helping homeowners protest their property tax appraisals is now under the scrutiny of the Tarrant Appraisal District. NBC 5’s Lili Zheng reports.
A Fort Worth realtor known for helping tens of thousands of homeowners protest their property tax appraisals will appear before a board Thursday amid an investigation into complaints against him.
Real estate broker and property tax consultant Chandler Crouch got his start in real estate in 2002. Over the past five years, Crouch said he has helped at least 90,000 property owners protest their appraisal with the Tarrant Appraisal District for free.
“Then in 2017, I got to hit the reset button in my business. When I did, I thought, 'why don’t I just grab the old dream I have, or this future dream I have of helping a bunch of people and see if I can help a bunch of people right here, right now?'” Crouch recalled.
This past year alone Crouch says he filed 28,000 protests. He does not charge for his services.
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“I don’t charge anybody anything, and it does not vary. I don’t care who you are. I’m here to help, and I’m happy to help,” he said. “The way people found out about me is just through word of mouth. I would save somebody a bunch of money. They’d go online and talk about it.”
But in November 2021, Crouch received a letter from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation regarding four complaints signed by Randy Armstrong, director of residential appraisal.
The earliest complaint dates back to October 2021, when Armstrong alleged Crouch “intentionally misled members of the Tarrant Review Board (TARB) with his testimony in a “market value” protest hearing on June 16, 2021” through his "misrepresentation of facts and abuse of his dual positions as both a Property Tax Consultant and a Licensed Texas Realtor/Broker.”
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Crouch said the allegations are false.
“The chief appraiser at the last board meeting told me that in all of the years he’s been a chief appraiser, he was not aware of any complaint and was not aware of any complaint that’s been filed against any property tax consultant ever,” he said. “It is highly abnormal. It is clearly an attack against me. They don’t want me protesting anymore. They want to shut me down.”
The complaints are expected to be addressed at a meeting Thursday morning with the Tarrant Appraisal District.
NBC 5 reached out to Armstrong for a comment on the matter Wednesday.
“There is currently a review of this matter being conducted, I prefer to wait on the review process to be complete before offering any further comment on these issues,” Armstrong wrote in an email.
Similarly, Jeff Law, TAD’s executive, declined to comment on specifics Wednesday. Law said the meeting was called to consult with the board’s attorney concerning a letter from Crouch’s attorney, Frank Hill, related to the complaints.
Crouch said he is hopeful members of the public will attend.
“They can recognize that I’m kind of being bullied. All I’ve done is try to help people,” he said. “Everyone needs to know what’s going on at the appraisal district, the appraisal district needs to know everyone is watching.”
The meeting at the Tarrant Appraisal District on Thursday morning will begin at 9 a.m. at 2500 Handley-Ederville Road in Fort Worth.
