I kept a snake in my serviced apartment even though it had a "no pets" policy. If they ever caught on, I would state their contract said "no pets" but nothing about live animals. I would argue that we were prepping the snake to turn him into soup.
Unfortunately Paulie (the snake) escaped because I forgot to put the paperweight on the fish tank.
I plan on buying a new one though and being much more careful. I had Paulie for 11 months with no problems. He was fed hamsters on a weekly basis.