I am getting ready to move into an apartment and I keep reptiles. should I keep this secret?

As a reptile Breeder myself i sympathies with your situation, but as property owner, i have to agree with J.B. What kind or guarantees could you give on escapees? It happens from time to time, and if you've never had one escape then you havent been doing this very long. I could see a few reptiles being allowed but more than that i probably wouldn't allow just because of neighbor complaints and such. Your best bet is to move in at night and tell no one what you have. And just hope the landlord never needs in your apartment. All they have to do is issue 24 hr notice before entering, and yes it is legal for them to do that, and it is not required for you to be there either, so you need to decide if you want to be upfront and take the risk of losing the apt. now, or not say anything and possibly get booted out later...

As a landlord what assurances could you give me?

Do you have heat lamps that will pose a fire risk?

Will I have a rodent problem?

What will the risk be, if one escapes?

If other tenants find out and want to move, who will cover my loss of revenue?

What kind of odors are produced, from their habitats?

Will there be mold damage from tropical conditions?

These are questions I would want answered before I would rent to you!

EDIT

I forgot to address the legal issues.

If there is a NO PET policy, it means all pets! Fish, hamsters, birds, snakes, etc...

You can be evicted if you signed a lease, or tenant at will agreement.

You would be responsible for ANY and ALL damage caused by your "pets". Including to persons or property.

There would also be issues regarding you running a business out of the apartment. I have a clause in my lease, which states the residence is for habitation ONLY. The legalities of running a business out of the apartment are huge. You have now introduced another risk element to the equation, not to mention insurance liability.

This may not seem fair to you, but this is my source of income. I would only be trying to protect my property, that I invested $500,000. In.

I am also much more inclined to rent to someone who is honest, who can answer my questions, and is willing to pay a monthly pet fee, and sign a pet agreement.

EDIT

I'm sorry if you felt my response was rude, but I was trying to show how a landlord would think in this situation.

This is my income you would be messing with, I would want to be informed on the ownership of snakes if they were allowed in my rentals. Since I do not know about owning, breeding, or selling them, I would ask my lawyer about my liability, after speaking with you about them.

In this world, I could be sued for NOT informing other tenants, of the presents of snakes on my property. For whatever reason they could come up with.

I do allow pets on a "per case basis". I have been very fortunate that I have been able to carefully screen tenants, and have so far avoided problems. (I have had some minor issues.) And I have had some extensive damage, replacing carpeting, woodwork, water damage, etc... Your security deposit comes no where near, what it takes to replace carpeting.

I also have a no waterbed policy, what a mess that would be.

You do have to remember this is your hobby or living, NOT the landlords. They don't HAVE to rent to you. You may be better off buying your own home, then you can do what ever you want to.

Again this is from a landlords perspective, it's not meant to be rude, I'm just being honest.

You may face eviction if caught. The only bad thing about keeping snakes, is that they aren't less of a risk for landlords, they are a DIFFERENT risk. Snakes bite (depending on the kind you keep), they have the possibilty of escaping, other neighbors may not like the idea of having a pet-eating creature so close to their home... etc, the possibilties are endless as to why a landlord may not want pets in their apartment, going beyond soiled carpets... it's always best to be upfront with your landlords so they know what is in their apartment so just incase something needs repairing, and one of your reptiles gets out, somones aware that there's a risk of getting bit, and if that does happen,THEN the legal ramifications start... the list goes on. Be honest... if landlords have reasons to why they don't allow pets/certain pets, you should probably abide by it.

If you sign a lease and agree to the no pet rule, you would be held liable for the rest of the rent on your lease, even if you were not living there.

You need to rent a place that says pets are okay. You also need to explain that your animals are contained, do not make noise, do not ruin carpets or chew on the woodwork.

You also need to check with local ordinances, some towns and cities prohibit the keeping of 'exotic' pets, snakes and ferrets are included in this group. I hope you are lucky enough to find a landlord who is pet friendly and understanding!!!

Ok, So I signed a lease with my landlord that stated no animals allowed. They were talking about dogs or cats (because of the obvious wear and tear they cause and fleas). However we made a verbal agreement that as long as I had my animals in cages (i.e. Birds & Fish) it was perfectly ok. I had no intentions of having snakes at the time. But once I got them I informed them with the notion that I may have to move because of the snakes but they were ok with it. I think I was just lucky on that.

Now as far as an apartment goes I think you should tell them you have them I just would not inform them that I was breeding them there. That may not go over too well.

I have hadu reptiles in my apartment and they knew about, but there were no snakes aloud which I think will be the biggest issue for you. I doubt that any legal action would be taken against you. You will either need to get rid of them or get evicted.

Let them know. They have a right to know if their apartment will be used for anything more than a place for you to live. Otherwise, they could evict and, depending upon what their lawyer tells them, you could get sued.

Shouldn't have moved there in the first place. Wait 6 months and they will be no smoking.

Legal issues are indeed a possibility! There are Public Health issues involved!