Lodger Problems

Hi,

I've tried finding some information on this on the internet but I'm struggling a bit because it's not a straight forward simple case. On of the problems being that we're in Scotland so fall under Scottish law and a lot of the advice I've found is based around the English version. Here's a brief outline.

My girlfriend owns a house and decided to rent out a room to a lodger for £330 a month including all bills. The lodger moved in in September but against my advice she didn't write a contract or take a deposit. In October the lodger's massive greyhound urinated on the edge of her wedding dress (she was due to get married to her ex later this year). The lodger was very apologetic and agreed to get the dress dry cleaned or reimburse the value of the dress and hung it up to dry - unknown to us - in the spare room but trailing on a bright red rug. After a few weeks he still had done nothing and my girlfriend asked him when he would get it sorted and he promised he'd get straight onto it, we then discovered the red dye from the rug had caused a huge stain up the train and back of the dress. The lodger disappeared a couple of days later around the beginning of November and after a week or two we text him to ask what was happening. He apologised for not having sorted the dress yet but he had returned to his parents for some "R&R" as he was feeling stressed. Still nothing done with the dress. In December we asked what has happening again, the dress was still damaged. The rent was due on the 1st and this was around the 7th. He said he didn't have the money to fix the dress and said he was going to have to move out. He paid rent for December and promised to move his stuff out before the end of the month.
My girlfriend phoned a dry cleaners and got a quote of £120 to try and clean the dress given the material, the fact it was stained with urine AND red dye however when she discovered this had happened over 6 weeks ago the dry cleaner said that it would be virtually impossible to remove the stain since it would have 'set'. Informed the lodger who claimed there was never any mention of reimbursing the cost of the dress although my girlfriend had told him she'd been planning to sell it 2nd hand for £275 and she would take in reimbursment - this was the night it happened and I witnessed the discussion. He text eventualy taking responsibility for the cost and said he couldn't afford to give her the money yet but would sort something out. On around the 27th he turned up while I was there and the girlfriend was at work to collect his passport and left his keys with me saying he knew she wasn't keen on him being in the house himself and was worried that he'd take his stuff and run.
It's now the 25th and he's paid no further rent, not collected his stuff (having missed 3 or 4 arranged dates and times to collect it all) and no sign of any money towards the dress.
He only has 2 items of value left in his room - along with a load of valueless rubbish - an electric drum kit worth around £400 and a TV worth maybe around £350.
What can we do ?
My suggestion to the girlfriend is that we write a formal letter, sent recorded delivery giving him 7 days to collect his belongings. Detail the money we feel he's due, £275 for the wedding dress and rent pro-data on a day by day basis up to the day he collects his belongings (close to £300 so far), therefore totalling around £575. We also plan to suggest he collect his belongings and leave the drum kit and TV and we'll sell them to recoup the monies due and send him any excess left over. Alternatively he take all his stuff and either leave the money he's due before this happens or we raise a claim in the small claims court.
Does this sound reasonable ? What else can we do ?
Please bear in mind this falls under Scottish laws however I would appreciate advice as well as anything from someone who has a better idea of the legalities.

I appreciate anyone who took the time to read that story, hopefully someone can help. This is causing a lot of stress to my other half.