I had a person renting from me for 8 months. We made him move out Jan 31st. He owes us 1000+ dollars. I was wondering if I can file a lien on his business vehicle (he washes windows for a living or what he calls a living) because he is not paying us. Do we need to do so on top of taking him to small claims court or can we just file the lien.

You need to have a judgment before you can place a lien on anything. And unless he owns the vehicle, you cannot file a lien against it.

Your best bet would be to file a small claims suit which you'll likely win, then file to a)have his wages garnished or b)have his bank account frozen.

And just a heads up: winning the judgment is the easy part - collecting is where it gets tough.