This person just bought a car that owes me 1300.00 it's 4 years old, and is paying on it. can I take it?

You would first have to go to small claims court and prove they owe you money. Then when you receive your judgment you have to wait a certain period of time for them to pay up. After that you can file to have a lien put on their car, house, or sometimes tax returns or settlements to collect on the debt. But unfortunately you cannot just take the car. I would check with your local small claims court to verify criteria in your county.

No. That would be stealing in the eyes of the law. You can ask the person who owes you money if they'd want to give you something valuable in place of the money he/she owes you, but don't hold your breath. Basically, your only real option here is to take him/her to small claims court. Just understand that you'll be paying money to have him served with court papers, you'll be paying for the court hearing, and if you win there is nothing that they can do to enforce that he pays you anything. Take it as a life lesson. Never loan anyone money that you expect to get back.

If you gave this person an 'unsecured loan' with no documentation, you may very well be out of luck. How would you prove in court that you are owed the money? Either way, you can't just repo his car (etc) as payment, unless the terms of the loan allow it.

The very first thing you need to do is get a judgement against this person. Once you have a judgement in hand, from a court, there are many options available to you for collection.

small claims court is your only answer. If you take anything from him/her you would be a thief and the courts won't care if the person owes you money.

If this is the poster who is trying to get money from someone on Social Security - forget it...you can't take the car.

file a civil suit

You will have to talk to a lawyer.

you might be SOL