Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I'm not an expert on 1031 exchanges. However, I do know partnership law pretty well, and I may have detected a possible problem here. You don't own a 1/2 interest in the apartment rental property. The partnership owns 100%. It is the partnership that will be selling the property and receiving the sale proceeds, not you. The partnership can make a distribution to you, but technically this is not the same as you selling a half interest in a building. Seek advice from an expert on 1031 exchanges to see how the IRS views this possible problem.

The problem is not that they are not "like" properties. The problem is that when the partnership sells a property the partnership must be the party to the 1031 exchange. If the proceeds are used to buy a property in a partner's name, it is a dissolution of the partnership and distribution of the assets, not a 1031 exchange. Dissolving the partnership by deeding the property to the partners as TICs is the proper way to do what it sounds like you are trying to do, but there is no cut and dried rule as to how long it must be held as TICs before the sale in order for the partners to do a 1031 of their TIC share into another TIC. The time must be a "decent interval."