Good afternoon all,
I did replace my front pads at 42.000 as a precaution as marked as critical by the dealer (not true they just wanted some more money off me)
So I've been doing some research and on this topic there is some truth in all the comments posted.
1) it is possible to replace the rear pads as 'normal' cars without e-parking brake IF this only drives a motor that pulls the handbrakes cables, releasing the e-parking brake in effect will have the same effect of releasing the mechanical parking brake then you can proceed as normal pads replacement.
2) you have a 'proper' e-parking brake where each rear caliper has a small electric motor attached to it that drives the piston in the caliper, IF you want to replace the pads you will need to rewind this back so that the piston can be rewound back, now there are 3 options here:
a) you take it to your beloved dealer and fork out £240 (so I've been quoted), you got original parts though and enjoy their lovely coffee while you wait; you can always shop around but my quotes did not get below the £150 with OE parts;
b) you do it yourself and you can purchase an gizmo that will do the rewind of the e-parking brakes electric pistons for you, this will set you back of at least £50 and should be quite straightforward;
c) the route I took is to replace it myself with original parts (set of original Renaults back pads £45 delivered) but by winding the electric motor with an hand tool, quite easy as replacing normal pads but with a twist of the electric motor on the caliper.
Now I did take some pictures of the process and if you are interested I would be happy to do a step by step to share in the forum.
Any thoughts are very welcome, thank you for reading.