I have a house with a garden. Half of the garden is surrounded by a road. There is no fence around the garden.
The other days, a company started to work on the road to replace the water pipes. Between their work zone(protected with the regular wooden safety fences) and my garden the space is more or less 1.90 m(the work zone is in a curved zone of the road).
They didnt close the road so cars are going through. Of course, people with the cars wants to protect their cars and not to got them scratched by the safety fences of the work zone. So the easiest way for the cars is to "step in" my garden and go further on the road. Therefore, part of my garden is like a road, all my plants and work done there(some wooden structure to fix the plants and the soil) is destroyed. The affected part is a strip of 50 cm wide and 8 m long.
I also suspect that the wheeled excavator the company use for the work "stepped in" the garden, because i see traces of huge wheels.
I have protested verbally and in written(by email, with photos) but they simply ignored me. No answer.
What shall i do in this case? Is not a big deal but i spent one week of my holidays working there + money for materials and now what i worked there has vanished.
Contact your local Gemeinde. They are usually hot on building companies keeping to the rules. Have you got legal insurance? That will help if you have to get professional help.
Is there anything you could put along that part of your property to prevent cars (etc.) from being able to go there? Maybe a few garden stakes and some "hazard tape" on it or something? (Something easily seen at night). I would think that would be legal if it's on your property.
Get a garden company to come and give you a quote for 'rectification' works - send quote plus photographs to roadworks company by registered letter, along with requirement to contact you by x date to reply or you will pursue it further via legal route. Typically a registered letter is much better than an email. Also, did you tell them exactly what you were asking them to do ?
If you own the house, the above suggestions are good, especially this:
If you're renting the house, send this documentation to your landlord, asking for your full use of the rented property, including the garden, to be restored.
I think that was true 10 years ago, but not really any more in most circumstances. I get pretty much everything done by email. If an email address is not immediately available, I call first to explain a situation and then get the email if I need to send evidence of anything.
Email is quicker, more flexible and you have a clear evidence trail of what was written. An email is also a legal document.