A colleague at work had his bike pinched from the bike shelter at work last week. The thieves cropped straight through his pretty decent lock. He seems to think that he can claim off the company insurance as they haven't got signs up saying that all bikes etc are left at the owners risk.
Is he right?
Did he pay the company for the right to park his bike? Nope, so he has no contractual claim. Does he have a tortious claim? Did they assume a duty of care, what was it and did they fail in that duty of care? Good luck with that one.
Any company insurance will have an excess greater than the value, so there is not actually any insurance available.
Sorry to hear about your mates bike. That happened to me at work too, and it sucks. In my case the company also had CCTV (broken) and a secuirty guard sitting 6 foot away from my bike.
A legal friend of mind said I should push for compensation (failure in duty of care etc.), and a reasonable company would meet you part way given the deficiencies in their security. In the end I decided it wasn't worth the bother and grief it could cause for me at work. But after I spoke to them about it they were quick to put up signs and replace the CCTV - nothing to do with the incident of course 😉
Think your friend would be best to chalk it up to experience.