[JMintzer]

Furiously Googling the definition of "supercilious"...

It's possible that construction crews were using your water before to took possession of the home.

That happened to us with a new home some 30 years ago.

The builder had "inadvertently" put our registered meter on the home being built next door and theirs on ours. The construction crews were using water at the construction site to water lawns, wash out cement mixers, hose down the street, etc, etc, etc...

When we moved in, our first bill was astronomical, since you're typically billed on past usage! It took several phone calls to straighten everything out and have our bill adjusted...