I'll keep this as succinct as possible.

I moved in Sept. 1. I used to live here a few years ago so the lease is old, and just has my name and my roommate Michael's name on it. There was another person living here who was supposed to move out Sept 1. We will call him John. John ended up moving out the middle of October and slept on our couch from when I moved back in until then. When John moved out he left his stuff in our garage. He said he would pick it up a few days after moving out.

It has been over a month since John said he would have it gone in a week and his stuff is still in our garage. We have texted him asking when he can get his stuff and he hasn't responded.

John owes Michael about $4000 and is interested in selling the stuff in the garage, however this is not a priority, as the items in the garage probably aren't worth even $500, if that. Michael has basically wrote off the lost $4000 and is not interested in pursuing the lost money.

Our largest concern is getting it out of the garage. What is our legal responsibility for the items in the garage? Is it legally ours after a certain period of time? What would happen if we just took it to goodwill and kept receipts for that as proof?

As a side note, John was never on our lease.

The items are 
-dresser
-desk
-bedframe
-a few boxes of clothes
user
Roommate left his stuff. Said he would move out a week after he
assistant
I'll keep this as succinct as possible.

I moved in Sept. 1. I used to live here a few years ago so the lease is old, and just has my name and my roommate Michael's name on it. There was another person living here who was supposed to move out Sept 1. We will call him John. John ended up moving out the middle of October and slept on our couch from when I moved back in until then. When John moved out he left his stuff in our garage. He said he would pick it up a few days after moving out.

It has been over a month since John said he would have it gone in a week and his stuff is still in our garage. We have texted him asking when he can get his stuff and he hasn't responded.

John owes Michael about $4000 and is interested in selling the stuff in the garage, however this is not a priority, as the items in the garage probably aren't worth even $500, if that. Michael has basically wrote off the lost $4000 and is not interested in pursuing the lost money.

Our largest concern is getting it out of the garage. What is our legal responsibility for the items in the garage? Is it legally ours after a certain period of time? What would happen if we just took it to goodwill and kept receipts for that as proof?

As a side note, John was never on our lease.

The items are 
-dresser
-desk
-bedframe
-a few boxes of clothes
user
Roommates stuff is still here a month after said he would be picking
assistant