A Fort Worth Realtor who has helped tens of thousands of homeowners protest their property tax appraisals is under investigation — the result of a complaint from an employee at the government entity he fights.

In an email to Fort Worth tax consultant Chandler Crouch dated Dec. 6, 2019, Randy Armstrong, director of residential appraisal at the Tarrant Appraisal District, signed off in the following fashion:

“I’m not sure what your end game is or what your motives are but I hope that all the criticism and attacks that you are party to wind up serving you well .... but I’ll leave that to your conscience. We all reap what we sow.”

Two and a half years later, Crouch is being investigated by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, after a series of complaints submitted by Armstrong starting in October 2021 alleging Crouch intentionally misled members of the Tarrant Appraisal Review Board while protesting property values.

Crouch, a broker and founder of Chandler Crouch Realtors, helps Tarrant County homeowners protest their property tax appraisals, and he does it for free. This year, he filed 28,000 protests.

Armstrong argues that, during protest hearings, Crouch misrepresented evidence to the Appraisal Review Board, the entity that receives and adjudicates protests.

This might not be noteworthy, but Armstrong signed the complaint using his official TAD title and contact information and may have done so on the clock, leading Crouch to question whether TAD sanctioned the complaint.

While Crouch, through his attorney Frank Hill of Arlington, has asked the board to clarify that it did not submit the complaint, it has yet to do so.

If TAD endorsed the complaint, Hill argues his client’s First Amendment rights are at stake.

“The message that sends to me as a taxpayer is, ‘We’re going to set your appraisals at whatever we damn well please, and if anybody tries to contest it, we’ll shut them up,’” said Hill.

While it’s unclear what the consequences of the investigation could be, Hill said the complaint could threaten Crouch’s real estate license.

After the issue was first publicly discussed at a June 10 board meeting, Crouch rallied clients, stakeholders and the media to bring attention to what he’s calling a free speech violation.

As a result, the board agreed to review the matter and scheduled a special meeting for Thursday; an executive session discussing the issue and potential action are on the agenda.

Inside the complaint

In the last decade, home prices in Fort Worth have increased 171%. In 2011, the median home price was $120,000. In December 2021, it was $325,000, an increase of 25.4% from the previous year.

Tarrant County homeowners’ annual property tax appraisals reflect this jump, and so do their tax bills.

More homeowners than ever are fighting TAD-assigned property values, many with the help of Chandler Crouch. Armstrong has a problem with his workload.

“Mr. Crouch files thousands of protests annually that he cannot possible responsibly and properly represent,” Armstrong wrote in the complaint.

According to one of the complaints, Crouch protested the value of a 4,871-square-foot home TAD appraised at $1,090,164. He requested a value reduction to $882,000.

At the time of the protest in June 2021 the property was listed for $2,530,000 with Crouch as the Realtor.

“This is at best a misrepresentation of the truth and at worst, unethical and certainly lacks transparency on his part,” Armstrong wrote.

The instance is just “one example of the mockery of the current tax system he continues to make at the expense of other taxpayers in Tarrant County,” Armstrong wrote.

In response to the allegation, Crouch noted the listing actually combined three TAD accounts. The property for sale included the house appraised at $1,090,164 as well as a 2,000-square-foot home, an apartment, two barns and a stable.

While Armstrong invoked his position at TAD on the document, Chief Appraiser Jeff Law said he had nothing to do with the complaint during a June 10 board meeting.

“I did not direct Mr. Armstrong to file a complaint against you. That was a choice he made all on his own. I don’t think the Tarrant Appraisal District should be implicated in this, because it was action he had taken, not us as an entity,” he said.

Conflicts of interest

When Armstrong wrote to Crouch “we reap what we sow,” his job at TAD wasn’t his only professional role.

Armstrong is the director of residential appraisal at Tarrant Appraisal District, which sets property values used for calculating property taxes. At the time, he was also president of the White Settlement school board, a taxing entity responsible for setting tax rates.

His dual roles made news in 2019 when he refused to step down as president of the school board after the passage of Senate Bill 2, a property tax law that forbids simultaneously working for an appraisal district and a government entity the appraisal district covers.

Crouch, an outspoken critic of TAD operations, emailed Armstrong, disagreeing with his decision.

“I tried to reach out to you personally to see if you wanted to comment on this so that I wouldn’t have to rely on third party information,” Crouch wrote.

Armstrong eventually relinquished his seat after 13 years.

Armstrong said he would not comment on the matter while the internal review is ongoing.

Troubles at TAD

Between a $12 million software glitch leading to an “explosive” audit, protest deadline confusion, errors in tax statements and failure to send protest notices, the last few years at TAD haven’t necessarily inspired confidence in taxpayers.

Then, there’s the rise in property tax protests.

In his first two-year term, TAD board member Richard DeOtte started pushing for an audit of TAD to determine the cause of increased protests. The explosion in protests was an aberration among large metropolitan appraisal districts in Texas, DeOtte noted.

It even garnered the attention of state Sen. Jane Nelson, whose district included much of Tarrant County. In April 2020, she wrote to the board requesting an investigation into the rise in protests.

While DeOtte’s push wasn’t received well by all members, in June 2020, the board narrowly voted to consider a review. A year and a half passed; no such audit came to fruition.

The board scheduled a special meeting for Thursday. It plans to go into executive session to discuss “issues related to the June 13, 2022, letter from attorney Frank Hill to members of the Tarrant County Appraisal District Board of Directors and other issues related to the TDLR Complaint filed against Mr. Hill’s client.”

In his letter, Hill requests the board to notify TDLR that it did not authorize the filing of the complaint.

The board may also take action on the issue.

This story was originally published June 28, 2022 2:56 PM.