HP Sears is a commercial collection agency for Marin County businesses. We recover unpaid invoices, overdue accounts receivable, open account balances, and breached contract obligations owed by one business to another — in San Rafael, Novato, Mill Valley, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Sausalito, Tiburon, San Anselmo, Fairfax, Greenbrae, Ross, and Kentfield. Placement is free, there is no upfront cost, and our fee comes out of what we recover.
Marin is a small-business county with large-business payment terms. A great deal of its commercial activity runs through firms of five to fifty people — design studios, specialty contractors, consultancies, staffing firms, medical and dental practices, marine trades, property managers, and professional service providers — invoicing on net-30 terms they have little leverage to enforce. When a customer stops paying, the owner is usually the one chasing it, between everything else. That is the problem we solve.
Request pricing for your Marin County accounts or talk to our team first.
What Marin Receivables Actually Look Like
The accounts we see from Marin creditors fall into recognizable patterns, and the pattern usually tells us how to work the file:
- Professional services fee balances. Law firms, accountants, architects, agencies, and consultancies that delivered the work, sent the final invoice, and then watched the client go quiet. These often turn on the engagement letter and the documented scope. Law firm collections in California.
- Construction and specialty trade balances. Retention that never released, change orders performed on a verbal approval, and final payments withheld against a punch list that was completed months ago. Construction debt collection.
- Commercial rent, CAM, and holdover balances. Office and light-industrial landlords in San Rafael and Novato carrying a departed or delinquent commercial tenant. How to send a commercial tenant to collections.
- Supplier and vendor accounts. Standing accounts with restaurants, hospitality operators, marine and boatyard businesses, and retailers where the balance built quietly across many small deliveries.
- Healthcare and life-sciences vendor accounts. Practice-to-practice balances, equipment and supply invoices, and contract-service work for the research and life-sciences employers clustered around Novato. Medical practice collections.
- Staffing and contract labor invoices. Placements made, hours worked, invoices unpaid — usually with excellent documentation, which makes them strong recovery candidates.
Why a Commercial-Only Agency Is the Right Call Here
Marin’s business community is small enough that reputation travels. That cuts both ways: a badly handled collection can cost you referrals, and a well-handled one can end with the customer paying and still calling you next year.
HP Sears collects commercial debt exclusively. We are not working from a consumer script, and federal consumer collection law — which defines a “debt” as a consumer obligation for personal, family, or household purposes under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(5) — does not govern business-to-business obligations the way it governs consumer accounts. What that means in practice is a direct conversation with a controller or owner about a purchase order, a delivery, a signed agreement, and the business consequences of leaving it unresolved.
We are also candid with clients about which accounts to press and which to preserve. If we think a Marin customer is a temporarily squeezed good customer rather than a bad debt, we will tell you, and we will work the file accordingly. Review our full collections process.
Serving Every Marin Community
San Rafael — the county seat and its largest commercial center, including the Northgate, Canal, and downtown business districts. Novato — life sciences, light industrial, and the county’s largest concentration of business parks. Mill Valley, Corte Madera, and Larkspur — professional services, retail, and hospitality. Sausalito and Tiburon — marine trades, hospitality, design, and tourism-linked B2B suppliers. San Anselmo, Fairfax, Ross, Kentfield, and Greenbrae — trades, practices, and small professional firms.
Timing: The One Thing You Control
The age of an invoice is the strongest predictor of whether it gets paid. Every month an account sits, the debtor’s records get colder, the people who authorized the work move on, other creditors get in line, and the willingness to pay hardens into a position. Commercial recovery rates fall steadily past 90 days and fall sharply past 120.
California gives you four years to bring an action on a written contract, a book account, or an account stated (Code of Civil Procedure § 337), and two years on an oral agreement (§ 339) — but those are outside limits for filing suit, not a collection strategy. Waiting three years because you technically can is how a collectible account becomes a write-off. How long should you wait before sending an account to collections?
On interest: under Civil Code § 3289, a contract’s own lawful stipulated rate continues to run after breach, and a contract entered into after January 1, 1986 that sets no rate bears 10% per year after breach. If your invoices and agreements say nothing about late charges or interest, that is worth fixing before your next engagement.
General information, not legal advice. Deadlines and remedies depend on your specific contract and facts — consult California counsel.
How We Work a Marin Account
- Free placement and review. Send the invoice, the contract or purchase order, and your contact history. We tell you what we think is realistically collectible before you commit to anything.
- Early intervention. Fast, professional, documented contact while the account is still fresh and the money still exists. Early intervention collections.
- Active recovery. Structured multi-channel contact with the actual decision-maker, not whoever answers. Skip tracing when a business has relocated, rebranded, or gone dark.
- Late-stage escalation. For accounts that resist resolution, including asset and judgment-recovery groundwork. Late-stage collections.
- Resolution. Payment in full, a structured settlement or payment plan, or a documented litigation recommendation — the last only with your written authorization.
Fees
Contingency only: a percentage of what we collect, nothing if we collect nothing, and no upfront or monthly charge. The percentage depends on the age of the account, its size, and how much you place. How contingency collections work · Fee calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have a Marin County office?
HP Sears is a California commercial collection agency serving Marin County creditors and pursuing Marin-based debtor businesses. Commercial recovery is not walk-in work — it is documentation, decision-maker contact, and escalation — so what matters is whether an agency knows how California commercial accounts resolve, not whether it has a storefront in San Rafael.
What is the minimum balance worth placing?
There is no hard minimum, but very small invoices are often better served by a disciplined internal demand sequence than by a contingency placement. We will tell you when that is the case. For balances in the thousands and up, and for full aging reports, placement almost always nets more than continued internal chasing.
Can you collect if the agreement was verbal?
Often, yes. Commercial obligations get proven by conduct all the time — purchase orders, emails, delivery confirmations, partial payments, and invoices accepted without objection can establish an account. Note that California’s limitation period for an action on an oral contract is two years (Code of Civil Procedure § 339) rather than four, so verbal-agreement accounts are more time-sensitive.
Will you sue my customer?
Not unless you authorize it in writing, and not as a default. Litigation is a last-resort tool for accounts with real assets, strong documentation, and a debtor who will not resolve otherwise. Most commercial accounts settle well before that point.
My debtor moved out of Marin or shut down. Is it hopeless?
Not necessarily. Businesses dissolve, reorganize, rename, and reopen under new entities constantly, and principals remain reachable. Skip tracing exists for exactly this, and successor-entity and personal-guarantee questions are worth checking before you write the balance off.
How is commercial collection different from consumer collection?
Different law, different leverage, and a different conversation. Consumer collection is heavily governed by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which by its own definition covers obligations a consumer incurred for personal, family, or household purposes. Commercial obligations between businesses sit outside that definition, so recovery turns on contract terms, documentation, and the debtor’s ongoing business interests — including its credit standing with other suppliers.
Get Your Marin County Receivables Moving
If you have an unpaid commercial invoice in San Rafael, Novato, or anywhere in Marin, the first step costs nothing. Request pricing or contact HP Sears for a free review of the account.