Landlord sending mail to rented property?

Definetly sounds dodgy. Retains a utility bill in his name would be proof of living there and could be used to claim PRR when selling the property to reduce Capital Gains tax.
Refuse to accept the situation

1.Why are you bothered?
2. Was this in the agreement at the start?
3.Does he ask you to reimberse the bill?
4.How do you know what's inside the mail?
5.If your rent includes utilities is that a problem?
If you want to stay and your happy in the property and its well maintained, just put his mail in a box for when he wants to collect. If you don't want to stay in the property, tell him no, just forward it to his address or return it to sender.
There could be any number of personal reasons.

It's not illegal, but it's not ideal.

Some landlords do this because they are confused about what being a landlord means and perhaps think they can massage the system (e.g. CGT). Maybe the mortgage company don't know the house is let.

As a landlord I would never do this as I might miss something important, so the risk is his really. There's no real downside to the tenant, so as Richie says, just save it for him.

Are you opening your landlords mail? If so you are committing a criminal act, Postal Act 2020.

As Richie above said why are you bothered. No criminal offence has yet been committed by your landlord.

Straight answer to your questions is I don't think you're liable but it's a moral question of how comfortable you are if it is a fraud. There are a number of ways in which the landlord may be using this to commit a fraud.

Whether it's a criminal or civil fraud, it is theft by deceit and is always at someone else's expense. If your landlord is dishonest they may well be dishonest at other times.

If your landlord pays the Council Tax they may be committing a lowly Council Tax fraud. They may be letting the property without permission - assuming it's a mortgage fraud and your landlord doesn't keep up their payments then the lender has the right to repossess your property. If it's a council property then the landlord is committing a criminal fraud (Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013) - again you would lose the property. A false address could support many other frauds.

I'd look for evidence. Does the landlord comply with all legal requirements for letting. If you have gas look closely at who did the safety check before you moved in. Search Land Registry online for who owns the property, it only costs £3.

Reply to the comment left by Simon M at 20/12/2022 - 11:42Goodness So many assumptions to paint the picture black!

People might be making this into a bigger deal than it is. It might simply just be that as the landlord.is abroad he legally has to have a UK address (for service of notices etc) or must otherwise use an agent. Given how crap the majority of agents are, it's totally understandable in that situation.
As far as keeping the bills in his name, it could just to be sure the bills ARE being paid, rather than coming back to thousands of pounds in arrears and credit issues linked to this address.

Reply to the comment left by Richie at 20/12/2022 - 14:42
I made no assumptions - all my comments are conditional. OP asked a reasonable question and you asked why they should be bothered. If it was the other way round would you not be bothered if one of your tenants was committing fraud?

As a non resident landlord of over 15 years, I am aware that some non residential landlords do commit fraud by keeping mail addressed to uk property. This is not a single tax dodge, but a double dodge as uk income needs to be declared in both countries.
Also the chances are the UK health service is being accessed fraudulently, so yes there is a very strong possibility that fraud is taking place.
We should all be bothered as fraud affects us all.
If you are in any doubt, contact HMRC which can be done anonymously and leave it to them to investigate.
If it is a genuine case then that's one thief not to worry about, if it has a reasonable explanation then absolutely no harm done.

Another outside bet, rent a room, I wonder if he is on the Council Tax register, he then lists all rent under rent a room and avoids the tax? just a thought to go with all the above.

If you moved in under said terms, as mentioned above, it is not your neck on the line, unless of course you do snoop and find out that he is soing something iffy...

Will we ever find out the answer, stay tuned folks!