I live in Los Angeles and traveled over the summer to NC to visit my family over the summer before my son started kindergarten. Basically... a vacation. While in NC, my roommate (who I am renting two rooms from--> I pay my rent to her) informed me that she would be subletting her room to someone while she worked in Europe (From July until Nov). I informed her that our agreement was to have her as a roommate, not a stranger, and since I have a 5 year old.. I'm not comfortable with the situation, so I would have to start looking for a new place upon returning to Los Angeles. She informed me she wanted something in writing by the end of the day as to exactly when I would be vacating. I wrote her that night... explaining that I over reacted a bit and in the future would appreciate having a say in who would be living with my son and I while she travelled. Her response (In July) was to please vacate the apartment and preferably by Sept. 15th. Also stating that she intended to remove my son's things from his room and place them in my room so she could sublet his room before she left. I replyed by informing her our rental agreement was for two rooms and if she planned on taking away a room, I would only be paying for one room.. and would use the deposit money I gave to her to apply towards Sept. rent and then pay a reduced rate rent for August. She replied that she couldn't rent my son's room and as such would still need full rent for August and that it would be OK to apply the deposit towards September. I paid the full amount of rent, and then asked her to return my gate key so that I could enter the apartment community (I still have my apartment key.. although I don't know if it still works since I am still in NC). Her reply (in August) was that she had moved my and my sons belongings to a storage facility and gave me the info on where it was.
She left for Europe in July which means she moved our things in July, but still accepted my rent for July and August. She also is taking the cost of the movers she hired ($600) out of the deposit money I gave her and has only agreed to pay back $650 (my deposit was $1250). I have all the corespondence between us was via email so all of it is in writing and printed up. I would like to take her to small claims court to get back my rent for July and August as well as the full amount of the deposit (totaling $3750) but am unsure of the laws regarding a verbal agreement when it comes to a living situation. Also wondering the legality of her moving my things into a storage facility without my permission or knowledge (and as stated... I paid rent so I wasn't a squatter).

Not legal at all, sue her for all the costs