Certificate of civil liability insurance: any insights?

As I understand it, it is insurance coverage that offers the landlord protection in case the rented property is in some way damaged during the rental period. Here in the U.S. it sometimes is included with Homeowners Insurance which is required with a mortgage. If she has the equivalent of Homeowners Insurance in the UK or U.S. first she should contact her own insurance company to see if they provide the coverage. It may be that State Farm does not offer the coverage but she should check again with her own insurance agent, A letter from the insurance company confirming the coverage would be proof of coverage.
In The U.K. Schofield’s Insurance and Intasure sell these policies as do the companies selling Travel Insurance such as Allianz, AXA and Generali France (Generali Global in the U.S).

Cheers!

This year, she discovered that in order to stay for that length of time, she needs to buy a certificate of civil liability insurance.

How did she 'discover' this?

If she has a Home Owner (or Renter ) Insurance it typically would have Liability coverage. The question that can be be answered by only reading the policy, is what or if that coverage might apply outside the US.

What coverage limits is she supposed to have to satisfy the the requirement ?

We needed this for other reasons connected with being in France. We had other insurance with State Farm, and they told us we needed to take out an umbrella policy to have general liability coverage (unrelated to our home in the US). In order to sell us an umbrella policy, they wanted us to have auto + home with them as well. Essentially the umbrella covers anything the other policies don't.

If it is a French insurance product that is required, my advice would be to speak to a French insurance broker.

Who's asking for this? We're in France over 3 months and no one has asked for it from us. Besides, within 90 days she's using Schengen visa-free status.

Hi joe32F: I have no idea how she discovered it. I think her landlord probably told her? She is a wildly accomplished biochemist/molecular biologist/nutrition researcher/textbook author, but her “street smarts” are somewhat limited. :-)

All: THANK YOU so much. These arenall excellent thoughts and suggestions and have given me a lot of ideas about how to skin this cat. State Farm won’t play ball right now because her legal residence is in New Yorl City, but she doesn’t have renters insurance there, and her car insurance is in Iowa! It’s a palaver.

We are now contacting her landlord to ask him for an insurance agent referral. We are also asking State Farm about an umbrella policy if she moves her car insurance to NYC and buys renters insurance from them.

Thank you all again so much! We were so stumped.