Short answer. Yes, where the repairs are indispensable for preserving the thing. Article 594 lets the usufructuary make them if the owner will not. But what he recovers at the end of the usufruct is not what he spent — it is the increase in value the immovable acquired by reason of the repairs.
What the law says
Should he not make them when they are indispensable for the preservation of the thing, the usufructuary may make them; but he shall have a right to demand of the owner, at the termination of the usufruct, the increase in value which the immovable may have acquired by reason of the repairs.
Civil Code, Article 594 — If the Owner Makes Extraordinary Repairs. Read the full provision →
Two conditions before you lift a hammer
The repairs must be extraordinary ones, and they must be indispensable for the preservation of the thing. That is a high bar and it is not the same as badly needed. It describes work without which the property will be lost or seriously deteriorate: a failing roof or foundation, structural members that have gone, drainage that is undermining the building. Repairs that make the property more comfortable, more modern or more profitable are not indispensable to its preservation, and money spent on those falls outside this article entirely. The owner must also have declined, so the refusal has to be a real one.
You recover added value, not expenditure
This is the part that catches people, and it is deliberate. The measure is the increase in value which the immovable may have acquired, judged at the termination of the usufruct — so a badly priced job, work that has since deteriorated again, or a repair that merely restored the building without raising its value can leave the usufructuary with far less than his receipts show. It also means the claim does not mature until the usufruct ends. There is no right to be paid as the work goes along, and none to stop paying whatever the usufruct requires of you in the meantime.
The mirror image, when the owner does pay
The first sentence of the article is worth knowing because it explains the logic. Where the owner makes the extraordinary repairs himself, he may demand from the usufructuary the legal interest on what he spent, for as long as the usufruct lasts. The capital improvement is the owner's affair since he keeps the thing; the usufructuary pays for the enjoyment of a property kept in repair. Read together, the two halves allocate the permanent value to the owner and the use value to the usufructuary, whichever of them fronted the money.
Build the record while the damage is still visible
Since the claim is about necessity and about value, both have to be documented before the repair erases the evidence. Photograph and have assessed the condition that made the work indispensable. Put the demand to the owner in writing and keep his refusal or his silence. Keep the contractor's scope, plans and receipts even though they do not measure the claim, because they show what was done. Then have the property appraised — a valuation before the work and another at the end of the usufruct is what actually produces the figure the article awards.