remove / reset inherited css from an element

"Resetting" styles for a specific element isn't possible, you'll have to overwrite all styles you don't want/need. If you do this with CSS directly or using JQuery to apply the styles (depends on what's easier for you, but I wouldn't recommend using JavaScript/JQuery for this, as it's completely unnecessary).

If your div is some kind of "widget" that can be included into other sites, you could try to wrap it into an iframe. This will "reset" the styles, because its content is another document, but maybe this affects how your widget works (or maybe breaks it completely) so this might not be possible in your case.

Only set the relevant / important CSS properties.

Example (only change the attributes which may cause your div to look completely different):

background: #FFF;
border: none;
color: #000;
display: block;
font: initial;
height: auto;
letter-spacing: normal;
line-height: normal;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-transform: none;
visibility: visible;
width: auto;
word-spacing: normal;
z-index: auto;

Choose a very specific selector, such as div#donttouchme, <div id="donttouchme"></div>. Additionally, you can add `!important before every semicolon in the declaration. Your customers are deliberately trying to mess up your lay-out when this option fails.