If you’re a client of Chandler Crouch, you may have received a mysterious piece of mail in the last two weeks.

The Fort Worth Realtor who protests property values for free is under attack. This time, his clients are involved.

Crouch estimates hundreds of clients have received a letter urging recipients to fire him. It claims he does not attend clients’ property tax protest hearings and offers free protests to get more clients for his real estate brokerage.

Each letter also contains property-specific information, including the 2022 proposed and final value and the 2023 proposed value of the property to which the letter was sent.

“That’s a lot of work and a lot of effort. For what? I already knew that,” said Belinda Willis, a Crouch client of about six years, who received a letter. “I’m not some poor defenseless property owner who’s being duped, and that’s the impression this letter makes.”

She also noted the information on her letter was incorrect.

The anonymous note with no return address depicts Crouch with a drawn-on gap between his front teeth and a prominent facial mole. He’s holding a sign that reads, “I didn’t go to your hearing!” in what appears to be Papyrus font.

“I think it’s very obvious that it’s a tax consultant that charges money for what we do for free,” said Crouch. “The only reason they want me to stop is because I’m very good at what I do, and I threaten their business.”

Crouch protests tens of thousands of properties per year. He said he individually researches each property and determines the lowest possible value supported by evidence.

Using a spreadsheet, he proposes these values and provides the evidence that supports the proposals. For offers that TAD accepts, the protest is complete. For offers TAD rejects, Crouch asks himself, “Do I have evidence to support a reduction?”

If the answer is “yes,” he escalates the informal protest to an Appraisal Review Board hearing.

“Whoever wrote the smear letter probably has the same business practices as me,” said Crouch. “The appraisal district itself does not want me to go to hearings on these.”

The letter instructs clients to determine if Crouch attended a hearing for them and urges them to remove him as their agent.

“It’s such a cowardly thing to do,” said Patty Wagner, another Crouch client who received a letter. “I really can’t see this as being something people are falling for.”

Neither Willis nor Wagner have moved to a new home since using Crouch as a property tax consultant and thus have not used his Realtor services.

“He has never asked for a single cent from me,” said Willis.

Willis said the letter appears to part of “a campaign of sorts,” which included complaints filed against Crouch in 2021 by Randy Armstrong, former director of residential appraisals at TAD.

In his complaints to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Armstrong invoked his official position at TAD. Chief Appraiser Jeff Law learned about the complaints but did not inform the appraisal district board of directors.

As a result, Armstrong and Law were suspended. Law’s handling of the incident and the resulting board meeting — in which hundreds showed up to support Crouch and were forced to wait outside in triple-digit heat — were cited as reasoning for the letter of repair that was issued to the chief appraiser in April.

When asked if anyone at TAD was involved in the dissemination of the letters, Law said in an email: “The Tarrant Appraisal District does not know who is responsible for these letters concerning Mr. Crouch. I have not heard any information from anyone identifying where these letters are being sent from or whom is sending them. The Tarrant Appraisal District never sends communications regarding individual tax agents to the property owners of Tarrant County.”

Crouch notes he’s been targeted before and since Armstrong.

Even so, response to news of the letters on Facebook has been “an overwhelming love fest,” said Crouch.

“I think it’s weird and creepy,” he said, “but it doesn’t bother me to the extent that it’s going to make me do anything except do more and more protests. ... When you try to suppress me, it has the opposite effect.

“It exposes the amount of corruption in property taxes, and I’m not going to stand for it.”

This story was originally published May 25, 2023, 12:49 PM.