Hi Heather, 

Welcome to the Box Community, I'm happy to help!

If the owner of the folder is part of a Business or Enterprise Box, you can reach out to the user's Box admin about requesting access to the previous owner's folder that you need access to. The admin can transfer the ownership of that folder to him or someone else on their account and grant you access.

Otherwise, if the owner is a personal user, you would have to directly contact that owner about granting you access.

If you have any questions, please let us know, we'll do our best to help you!

Regards,