I Bought A House And The Seller Violated The Contract, Are My Closing Attorneys Supposed To Help Me Enforce The Contract? They're Claiming They Can't Do Much.

I bought a fixer upper last year, the place had been owned by a bank for 2 years. My first water/sewer bill in july had a previous balance of 300+$. I called the water dept and they said I only have to pay the new charges, and the previous owner should pay the previous charges. I called my closing attorney and he said yes the previous owner had to pay, and not to worry about it, they would take care of it. So I pay my share of the bill and don't think about it.

I get my next water/sewer bill in Oct, and it now has 380$ previous balance on it, after the late fee from the $300 was added on. When I go to pay the bill, the city treasurer told me that if the balance isn't paid down by the end of Nov, it goes on my next year's property tax bill. I send my closing attorney the bill and explain the situation. He said he would take care of it, but he went on vacation, then forgot about it, and I got a message from his Paralegal asking me for a copy of the bill on Nov 28. So they don't make the deadline.

In Jan, I send my attorney a copy of my property tax bill with the added water bill (now 470$), I ask for an update and they said that the previous owners called the city and there was no outstanding balance on the water bill, so they are confused. My attorney let it slip that the sellers real estate agent is actually the one who has to pay, I remind my attorney that when we were signing closing papers, they said they personally knew the sellers agent and had their number, so I asked if they could just send a text. They said they couldn't because they're not that close.

I don't want to be annoying, or a former client from hell. I want this to be over, but my attorney keeps leading me on. When I ask for an update once a month, they say they will try asking for the money again, but I get the sense that's all they do, and the sellers stopped responding, and they don't follow up until i ask for an update. They haven't told me that there's nothing they can do, I get the feeling that they're waiting until I tell them to forget about it and that I will take it to small claims court myself. I think that's what I'm gonna have to do, but I want to make sure that I'm not missing anything.

My questions are

if the seller doesn't hold up to the sales contract that we signed, is it the responsibility of my closing attorney to address? Or is that a separate case that is not part of the original deal. In other words, when I use a closing attorney, is that like "insurance" for the fulfillment of the contract, like do closing attorneys enforce the contract if an issue like mine comes up? Or do I just pay them to make sure everything's right and the papers are filed. If that's the case, so be it, I just want to make sure.

if I do have to go to small claims court, I'm thinking of asking for all correspondence that my attorney had with the sellers attorney/agent. Should I expect them to give those to me? Am I entitled to attorneys communications about my contract? I'm also going to ask for any other info they have that can help me, but if anyone has any advice for small claims court (like if it's even worth it, or how i should prepare).

I'm not a house flipper, I'm living in this house long term, I put most of my savings in to it, I don't make a lot of money, I really want this 480$ back.