Can we ask seller who breached contract to pay all legal fees and expenses if buyer wins the case?

We signed contracts since November 2016, was told at that time this new construction was almost complete and set date to close in February 2017. After numerous inspection failures, seller who is also the builder now refuses to sell after 8 months, saying he is sick of the town of north Hempstead, Nassau county in Long Island and he will even move in even house has no CO. All these times, seller refuses to meet with buyer to discuss any issues. Finally we obtained failure lists from town which seller/builder repeatedly refuses to give when asked. We consulted with engineer, a city housing inspector and was told that those issues were easy to resolve. We suspected seller gets better deal and want to sell to someone. His attorney ignored our attorney's request for answers many times. Our contract stated unless if buyer can't get bank loan, both must sell/buy. If we use specific performance to make seller complete house and ask seller to pay for related fees and court fees?thanks