Facts
The appellant [X.] is the owner of a property in St. Moritz with a total living space of around 850 m2. The municipality of St. Moritz levied usage fees for water, wastewater and waste disposal for this property for the years 2001 and 2002, which were mainly calculated based on the building insurance value. [X.] unsuccessfully filed an objection against these fees and ultimately filed a constitutional appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court holds that the fee regulation of the municipality of St. Moritz, which bases the usage fees for water, wastewater and waste disposal mainly on the building insurance value, is not compatible with the requirements of federal law. While a portion of the costs for maintaining the infrastructure may be covered by a non-volume-dependent basic fee, this must be based on the objective usage possibilities of the property and must not be in obvious disproportion to the value of the services received. In the case of luxurious properties with a very high building insurance value, whose actual use corresponds to that of an average household, basing the basic…