Ultimately you have to do what you are comfortable with. Im sure that you are going to get a broad spectrum of advice on this issue. Keep in mind though that many people on forums get very self righteous and uppity when they are dolling out advice to strangers about problems that will never affect them. Is it an ideal situation to be dishonest? Absolutely not. But it is much better than the alternative scenarios. IMO my animals are my full responsibility, and I would do whatever it takes to ensure their happiness and health, including lies to a landlord. Its very temporary situation. You don't have to have the snakes outside the apt ever. Likely your landlord would never even enter your apt. No one is going to evict you for having snakes. Likely they would just give you a time frame to find another arrangement.
To tell you the truth, if you know for a fact they don't take reptiles, I wouldn't even bring it up that you have them. That way you can play dumb and have plausible deniability if you somehow get caught. I know this sounds shady, but its typical lawyer speak.
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I think the issue isn't going to be having snakes, its the rack with heating elements. They generally don't like home wired appliances in an apt for fire safety reasons.
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